Ninjago AU1-Land of Dragons and Gold
by LadyMarissaGarmadon
Summary: Kai is a blacksmith with no hope for a future, Zane is the watchful bodyguard of the prince, Jay is a hopeless inventor, Cole is a brooding miner, & Nya is a maiden with a secret close to her chest. It all started when two brothers fought to the death & a woman who stood between them. Ninjago is a land of mystery & legend. When they are called by fate, it will shake the world.
1. Prologue

**Okay so... after much thought... I decided to post this story too... My mom read it all in a day and my dad started reading it and they think it's my best writing ever so I feel confident enough to start posting it... **

**I'm trying to update all of my fics on one day each... so bear with me XD I'm shooting for every 3, 5, or 7 days :) **

**So this is an AU and I plan to do a whole set that includes the entire series, including Rebooted and my short story Infiltrate Borg Tower and my EU after that ^-^ **

**So yea, is there anything else? Oh yea this story only has four minor ocs that are not in it very much, if aynthing Daisie is in it more. **

**But right now, that is not the main focus... **

* * *

"My little Lloyd…" Misako tiredly opened her eyes and smiled seeing her husband with the new child in his arms.

"Come… let me see him," she weakly said, holding her arm out. He sat up next to her and they held the newborn infant together.

Lloyd opened his small eyes, bright, emerald green, "your eyes…" Garmadon kissed Misako's cheek loudly. "He's perfect…" he nuzzled the side of her face with his nose. Misako's heart dropped though when she saw the gold glint in the child's tired, little eyes. Just like their late king.

"Misako?" Garmadon looked over, feeling her tense up. "Is there something wrong?"

"What?" she looked up; startled. "N… no, no, of course not…" she faked a smile and leaned her head on his shoulder. She looked at Lloyd and smiled for real again, "Nothing wrong at all…"

_And that was last true happy moment we ever shared. _

"GARMADON! WU!" Misako screamed. "STOP IT!" She started running down the steps when she saw Lloyd poking his head out of the heavy, thick doors. She picked him up quickly and place him back in and shut the doors, "No Lloyd, stay here," she started shaking.

She ran back down and her heart stopped. Garmadon was standing over his younger brother, the sword of fire poised to slash, her eyes watered being unable to stop any of this. "GARMADON!" she screamed in attempt to stop him.

She was surprised when her husband looked over. It was a brief enough moment that allowed Wu to get up and start the fight again. A lightning bolt hit the ground and it opened up to reveal the pit to the Underworld. Wu grabbed his older brother by the throat and held him over. He stretched his neck back, trying to breathe between his younger brother's tight grip.

"STOP IT!" Misako screamed again, running towards them, tripping on her long, deep purple dress front. She froze once again, looking up, Garmadon's eyes locked on with hers. It was the most vulnerable look he ever had on his face. _No _she wanted to scream.

Wu let go, thrusting him forward, seizing the chance, and that was the end. Misako clapped her hands over her mouth and her legs couldn't hold up any more she fell down, sitting on her knees. Wu only then noticed her crying and dropped the golden scythe that was in his other hand.

"Misako I-"

"NO!" she slapped his arm away. She wobbled, standing up and stepped back more and more. "You had him by the throat! There was nothing he could have done!"

"He would have killed me," Wu looked at her.

"If you let go of him instead of throwing him to the Underworld, he would have been sorry! It's not his fault!" She shook her head, shoving him away from, and ran up and inside.

"Misako," Wu sighed loudly. "Blind love…" he muttered the last part.

_And that was my last chance to even remain as friends with her._

He never saw her until she was caught leaving that very night. "Where do you think you'll go, may I ask?" he quietly said.

"Away from here…" she gritted her teeth. "Away from you…" She didn't say it in anger, no that emotion was replaced by loneliness and memory. She threw her hood over her brown hair and looked down at the nodding off child in her arms.

"You should leave him here…" he gestured to the young prince.

Misako looked at him; "I will never leave my baby alone…" stuck her nose and mouth in his baby soft blonde hair, kissing his little head.

"Misako, he is the one that will kill Garmadon-"

"NO!" she hissed. "I will never let that happen!" she started crying. "_Never_, do you understand that? He… he's not the one…" she shook her head.

"Well… if you want him here… just… you know…" Wu lowered his head.

"Yea… sure…" she looked down and squeezed her eyes shut. She walked out the door and shut it behind her quite loudly. "Bye Wu…" she whispered even though he couldn't hear her.

The sound of the door and the forced goodbye echoed in the large, spacious foyer of the castle. The gesture and words would haunt it forever. A family broken was all it was a reminder of.

"Goodbye…" he whispered to nothing.

_The time for anew is starting. Evil is rising and no one is to combat it. There shall be four in tune with the four Golden Weapons. Through them shall be the Chosen One they are to protect. Find these boys, for they are our salvation. _

_Two brothers, princes of Ninjago, split by their differences, shook the world of Ninjago as the older strove for the power to rule what was given to his younger brother and thus broke the balance. _

_The red ninja, master of fire, with the gold sword a dragon that spits fire._

_The blue ninja, master of lightning, with the gold nun chucks and a dragon that roars with lightning._

_The white ninja, master of ice, with gold shurakins and a dragon that lashes with ice shards._

_The black ninja, master of earth, with a scythe of gold and a dragon who breathes earth. _

_And the one to save us all, the one in green with the power of all four. He will defeat the prince, the older brother, he is the light of Ninjago, don't let his light burn out._

_Be wary my son. Your time has come. _

Wu opened the gates and found a small boy with blonde hair. He would never have known who he was without his big green eyes that were the exact image of his mother's. The boy was almost five and was very wet as it was raining.

He looked up and swore out of the corner of his eyes he saw a faint figure of a woman, cloaked with green eyes. He saw the reflection of her glasses and the long braid and knew who it was. She shook her head slowly and Lloyd looked back. Wu swore he saw something different about her under that cloak.

"Come Lloyd… remember me?" Wu finally said before the boy could see his mother in the distance.

"Mmhm," Lloyd quietly nodded, he was sucking on his thumb, the other hand tugging on the small green robe around his shoulders that shown great wear on it.

He picked the small boy up and was going to carry him in. "Glad to see you are back home…" The young boy rested his head on his uncle's shoulder and fell asleep. "I'll take care of you now nephew…" He looked back up at Misako who looked down.

Wu looked back down at his nephew who looked like he was becoming restless. "Let's go inside now…" he whispered and carried him inside. "It's miserable out here…"

**After my dad read this part he looked at me...**

**Dad: Okay... now... who's the dad?**

**Me: Uh... Lloyd's dad?**

**Dad: Yes...**

**Me: It's Garmadon!**

**Dad: Wait... I thought it was Wu...**

**Me: What!? No! Don't you dare talk like that!**

**Dad: And I thought Garmadon was the older brother...  
**

**Me: He is!**

**Dad: Wu's brother?  
**

**Me: YES**

**Dad: And dad?  
**

**Me: Now you're talking silly**

**Dad: What!? You didn't give all of that information.**

**Me: Did too!**

**Dad:I don;t know this show that well Ris!  
**

**Me: The way I talk about ****it you should... mom knew everything about the show really  
**

**Dad:Okay so recap... Misako is Lloyd's mom  
**

**Me: Yes**

**Dad: and Garmadon is married to her and is Lloyd's dad?  
**

**Me: Yes  
**

**Dad: Wu is the brother...**

**Me: Of Garmadon...**

**Dad: Okay  
**

**Me: Now are you gonna read more?**

**Dad: Later..**

**Me: ARRRGH!**

**Dad: but it's really well written so far**

**and that's all that was said XD **

**So I hope you like this :) I worked REALLY REALLY hard on this! It took me about two months to write it all and I'm really proud :)**

**I'm trying so hard to multi task with all my stories just because it's fun I think XD I've been keeping up and am happy with that...**

**So hope you guys are gonna like this one :)**

**~Mar**


	2. The Dragon Rider

"I'll never do anything decent with my life… huh?" Kai threw another ratty, ruined sword into the pile with the others. He then heard his twin sister, Nya laugh. "What's so funny?" he demanded.

"Oh nothing," Nya giggled, sitting on the old wooden counter. "It's just you always do this… just take your time and-"

"Time? What time is it?!" Kai looked at the sun; squinting his brown eyes.

"Uh, little after midday… why?" Nya blinked, not understanding the urgency of knowing the time of day for her brother.

Kai was taking his tan apron off and hung it up on the wall hook, and threw his hammer in a barrel with his other tools and took off out of the shop and down the dirt road. "Where are you going Kai!?" Nya walked a little ways after him. "Kai!?" she looked as he ran off, down the trail out of their small town.

"GOTTA RUN! SEE YA LATER SIS! MIND THE SHOP!" Kai yelled back, behind him with a grin on his face.

"Oh!" Nya growled to herself. "Why can I never have any fun!?" she demanded, asking herself. She brushed her red dress off and stormed up into her room, not caring if anyone came to the shop.

Kai ran and ran with a grin on his face; reaching a cave he had hidden behind broken tree limbs and other assorted foliage. He brushed it back and grinned even wider. "Hey Flame!" he ran inside. He hugged the nose of the great red beast at the back of the cave.

"Told ya I'd be back! You want some fire flakes? Extra spicy, just how you like it," he waved a bag of the dragon's favorite treats. His gold eyes watched the swing bag and his great, thick tail swung back and forth with glee.

The crimson dragon opened his mouth and Kai tossed some in. The young blacksmith looked against the cave wall and smiled, seeing it was just as he left it; his golden sword Flame had given him years ago when they first met. He picked it up, looking at his reflection on the gold blade.

"Flame, you ready for some flying exercise? You must be tired from being cooped up in here for days…" Kai walked over and got out the saddle he had made when he first learned to fly a dragon as a young teen with Flame. It was starting to become more and more rare that he could get out and take his pet for exercise, being that dragons were the stuff of legend and everybody would hunt down his poor Flame if they knew about him.

Kai mounted on Flame's scaly back and petted his head, grinning. "Come on, wanna get some air? I've been sick of the blacksmith shop as well…" he scratched the scales on the back of Flame's head.

Flame stretched his wings a little ways and hobbled out of the wide mouthed cave. Kai ducked his head as they came out. The red dragon stretched his wings wide and full and started flapping them, lifting off the ground.

Kai gripped his golden sword in his hand, making sure not to drop it as they flew, being it was a beautiful and rare sword, why leave it behind where people could find it? "Remember Flame; let's keep away from the towns. You know not a lot of people fancy dragons…"

Flame snorted in response and made a wide turn, towards the mountains. Kai's short, spiked hair blew back as Flame soared faster, wind whipping so hard it would make normal people want to shut their eyes, but Kai lived for this. He loved time off and when the shop was closed and even better was blowing off work early… not like they had much business anyways.

The eighteen year old breathed the fresh air as they circled the mountains, Flame nearly ramming into them just to scare Kai. The young blacksmith pulled on the leather reigns to the left and away. "Not today buddy," he laughed.

They set down on the top of the mountain and Kai slid off. Below them he could see the tops of the Fire Temple, where Flame had met Kai years ago and brandished the golden sword to him. Kai stroked his friend along his snout and the beast licked him back from the side of his chin, up. "You know… I've always debated about showing you to my sis… Nya…"

Flame looked at him, "I know, I know… I should be the only one who knows about you but… maybe Nya should know… you know?" Flame nudged him. "Okay okay…" Kai rolled his eyes. "Not yet… but I mean it… you'd like her anyways," Kai laughed and jumped back on. "Ready for another go round and head home?"

Flame roared and they were about to take off again when a voice stopped them. "Well now, what are a boy and his dragon doing all the way up here?" Kai looked back and Flame swung around protectively of Kai.

"Whoa… watch it buddy… it's just a lady…" Kai put a hand for his pet and friend to stay back. "Uh… uh who are you?" Kai asked, turning to the woman.

"Unimportant…" she answered abruptly. "Is that the golden sword?"

"… y-yea…" Kai held it tightly. "A gift from my friend here… what's an old lady like you hanging around a volcano?" he raised a brow.

"Oh I wander here and there… I use to come here a lot when I was young… with my family…" She didn't take her hood off but Kai could make out her face features and could tell that she was older and saw her silver braid sticking out over her shoulder. "You should be going…" she looked at the young man.

Kai was about ready to mount onto Flame's back, "You're sister will be getting annoyed with you I'm sure…"

"How did you-?" Kai looked back. She was gone. "Weird…" he rubbed his eyes and then decided to mount and fly back.

She climbed down and gripped the tree limp growing on the side of the mountain and swung in to the cave on the other side. She took her hood off, fluffing her hair up and throwing her long braid down her back and stretched.

"So it's begun…" she unhooked her dark green cloak and threw it on top of a pile of old scrolls and maps on the floor of the cave. "The fourth has been found…" she crossed off a fourth title with an ink brush. Shaking her head, she took out a small, old worn scroll and sadly smiled. "Oh Lloyd… I'm sorry…"

She sighed and rolled it back up and stuffed it away. "The wearer of black, strong with might, with the scythe of quakes to aid the light. The one of blue, so faithful and true, wields the nun chucks of lighting and gives in to nothing. The fighter in white, calm and wise, his shurakins of ice, leads to the shadow's demise". She looked at the red figure, "The boy of red, stubborn and strong, with a sword of fire, he chooses to right wrong

These are the four the boys who won't cease. For shadows are coming to Ninjago at speed".

That was the prophecy, the four boys who would inherit the powers of the past king. Fire was the last to come. And that was the young dragon rider she just saw.

**So this one might be updated more than others... IDK yet... XD so I hope you enjoyed it :) **


	3. The Red Mask

"KAI!?" The brown haired boy looked up and sighed. "Sorry Flame… that's my cousin… she's the one I was saying looks after me and Nya… she's in charge so I gotta go home… see ya tomorrow though… okay?"

Flame seemed rather agitated and nudged the sword Kai left against the cave wall. Kai frowned and picked it up. "What do you want? You want me to take this with me?" Kai looked up. Flame's gold, pupil-less orbs closed as he lowered his head. "Okay… I'll keep it a secret… okay?"

Kai smiled, petted his dragon one last time and left the cave and ran home. A short woman with dark brown hair tied back and up, in a fine looking pink dress and corset held her hand on her hips, a frown on her face. Kai walked on, looking back at the sword wrapped nice and neat on his back.

"Nya said you just took off…" she marched forward. Kai slumped looking like he was keeping something from her.

"Yea… sorry…" Kai scratched the back of his head, standing up straight again. Her brown eyes turned soft.

"In fact… Nya just left, no idea where she ran off to…" the woman sighed and looked back at the trail that led to the small town.

"Sorry Daisie…" Kai apologized and looked down at her. The young woman squeezed him tightly and smiled.

"I always knew that when I took over watching you two I'd have to face that you kids would grow up so wonderfully…" she tilted her head. Kai sighed, suddenly sad. "Sorry… I know you still miss mom and dad…"

Kai then smiled looking at his older cousin. "I know Daisie… but you know… I've been dealing with it… you took things awfully well too… after… Uncle Otoku and Aunt Touko were killed in that skeleton raid…"

"Yep…" she sniffed and hugged him again. "Now go wash up! I'm making dinner," she shoved him off, spanking him like he was a kid again.

"Ow! Okay okay!" Kai laughed and moved along. "But what about sis?"

"Go," she pointed. Kai chuckled again and walked through the wooden house and into his room. He looked around and slid the sword all wrapped up underneath his bed. The underside of his bed was so messy Nya wouldn't dare to look under there and Daisie left Kai's room alone.

He found the bucket of water in the small kitchen area and stuck his hands in the water. "Shoot! That's cold!" Kai took his hands out and dried them on his apron hanging up.

"Should have come home sooner fire butt," Daisie walked in and was lighting the brick oven. Kai growled; he hated it when his sister and cousin called him that. In fact he was tired of being the only boy around. The girls had each other at least.

"Hey I'm gonna look for Nya, okay? She's probably in town with Ange again…" Kai stepped backwards out of the room.

"Be back before dark okay?" Daisie looked up at him. "You know that Nya's friend can be… silly". Kai nodded with a grin and ran out. He went around to the community stables and found the black horse he was looking for.

"Well hey there Ash…" Kai stroked the nose of the horse. He looked over at the empty space next to him. "Where's Steela?" he mumbled.

Ash and Steela were his parents' horses, but when they died, Kai and Nya took charge of keeping them, not wanting to sell them in memory of their parents. So they learned to ride and kept Daisie from selling them to pay for food.

Kai never fancied riding a horse but Ash was too easy to ride, especially when you're probably the only person in Ninjago that could ride a dragon. He mounted on Ash and took the reins and snapped them to get the big black horse moving.

The two rode down and into town and that's when he started looking around. For dinnertime the town was unusually busy. Not many people had horses so it wouldn't be too hard to find Nya and her horse.

"Hey Kai!" the young man looked around. A girl with black hair and green eyes ran over.

"Ange?" Kai looked down. "Where's Nya?"

"Oh she said she was going home… that was a few minutes ago…" she frowned.

"Was she riding Steela?" Kai asked another question.

"Oh yea… that pretty gray horse with the white star on her nose?" Ange asked with a smile. "Yea I remember. Only saw her for a few minutes actually…"

Kai sighed, "Great…" the young blacksmith growled and slowly rode through the crowd when he heard shouts and yells.

"GET THAT BRAT!" Kai snapped up and looked around. He looked up where everyone else was looking.

A rather short figure dressed in red, cloak, kerchief, tunic, and when she turned, a mask. She had on black tights and red boots to match. Kai looked at one of the town guards, "Hey what happened? Who's she?"

"_She _just took my money!" a guy shouted from a little away from where Kai sat on his horse.

Kai immediately recognized him as Mr. Shing who was a money handler and ran a pawn shop. Kai looked back at the girl who was hopping away, laughing. Kai smiled because he knew better than anyone that Shing was cheated people out of money.

"Why you laughing?" Shing asked.

"Oh… no reason sir…" Kai covered his mouth.

"I'M TELLING YOU LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD! COME BACK HERE!" Shing started running after the girl.

She stood on the highest roof in town and yelled at the top of her lungs; "YOU'LL NEVER CATCH THE RED MASK!" she laughed loudly and slipped away.

Kai shook his head and decided to turn around, riding back home, deciding for himself that Nya simply came to town to buy whatever girls like her like and then left.

Once home he fed Ash and looked over and found that Steela was back and fed. Kai frowned and walked inside to see Nya in her room, putting some things away in her crates. "Hey sis!" Kai grinned.

"Oh Kai!" Nya turned and smiled. "Hey…"

"I was in town and I saw this girl… they called her the Red Mask and she just up and stole Shing's cash stash!" 

"Oh yea! I heard about her…" Nya smiled and hung a dress out of her window to dry. "Heard she also knocked over that bar… you know… the one Mrs. Uni tries to cheat poor guys out of spending cash on alcohol?"

"No way". Kai laughed. "Well, did you get what you need from town?" Kai looked as she moved the barrel she kept next to her bed behind her shoji dressing screen.

"Dinner's ready!" The twins heard Daisie yell. The two ran through the hall into the small front room, Daisie placing the plates around the table.

**So yea... also just to let everyone know that so far out of my cannon AU versions this is the only one with any ocs at all. **

**My mom actually liked how I added a motherly woman living with Kai and Nya to take care of them when they were younger :) **

**So I made the Red Mask to be kind of like a Robin Hood character :) **

**Thanks for reading guys! :D And I decided that this fic will be updated more often than the other ones :) Not every day but every two or three ^u^**

**Later gaters ;D**

**~Mar**


	4. The Assassin's Vision

Kai looked underneath his bed and pulled out the sword he'd come accustomed to over the years and frowned. "Why would Flame want me to have this here?" Kai unsheathed it and examined it. The hilt was even gold and coming out of it and a dragon's head and jaw coming around the base of the blade.

He gave it a swing, acting like the heroes he was told in stories as a kid. The sword was beautifully crafted and lightweight for a weapon made of solid gold. Kai didn't want to admit it, but there was almost something magical about the item.

He looked out the window. The valley where he lived with Nya and Daisie had a perfect view of the lit torches of the Imperial City outside the palace. _The Palace_. Kai smiled, he always dreamed of being a samurai instead of staying in the valley as a blacksmith.

He was decent enough at sword fighting since he met Flame only five years ago. A samurai required the best skills; the top at sword fighting, horseback riding, and not to mention a sense of nobleness and chivalry. Kai sighed at the dream that he knew could never be. He had to take care of Daisie and Nya as a man and Nya would be helpless without him.

It was nice to dream though. But sadly dreams are only in your head, and Kai's dreams of fighting in red against wrongdoers was simply fantasy.

"What do you mean Garmadon is coming after his son?" Wu looked at the white clothed assassin. "How can you know?"

"I foresaw it…" he lowered the white scarf he kept around his neck and mouth. "You gave me the job of protecting that child, so why would I lie?" Zane's icy blue eyes seemed to flash brief annoyance of the king's lack of faith in his abilities.

"I see your point…" Wu sighed. Zane briefly nodded, feeling good about being believed. "Okay Zane… keep a close eye on Lloyd… I need to… I need to go on a short trip I believe…" the king walked out. "Maybe visit an old friend on the way…"

"To where your highness?" Zane asked, confused. He looked back at the door to Lloyd's bedroom. Hopefully the young boy was asleep.

"When it's time… you will know," he walked past the blonde assassin who walked in the other direction to Lloyd's room.

"I see you are up…" Zane smiled, stepping into the dark room. He didn't need eyes to see the twelve year old boy was up.

"What about my father?" Lloyd had lit a candle that brightened the room a little. "I heard you Zane… I heard both of you… is my uncle leaving me too? Am I a curse?"

"It's nothing to worry about Lloyd…" Zane sat on the child's bed. Lloyd sat upright. "He will come back… and you are much loved…"

That vague answer did nothing to ease his mind though. "As prince I demand you to tell me!" Lloyd folded his arms with a frown on his face.

"Your uncle told me that it's nothing to worry about. It is impossible for your father to return any time soon," Zane covered up.

Lloyd looked out the window, "… sorry… I just don't remember my dad… or my mom…" Lloyd fell back against his pillows. "… Zane? Do you know what my parents were like?"

"I'm afraid I never met them…" He sadly answered him.

"Oh… it's just my uncle never ever talks about them… if anything he mentioned my mom more than my dad…but all the paintings of them are covered up…" Lloyd lay sprawled out on the deep green covers. "I wish I had a family…" he breathed.

"But you do… sort of…" Zane patted his leg. He wasn't good with relating to families because he himself never knew his parents. Like Lloyd, he was abandoned, but he would never come out and tell Lloyd that.

The two sat upright when the sounds of shattered glass hit. Lloyd jumped to his feet. Zane stood up just after and stood in front of him.

The two heard cackles and loud laughter from just outside. Lloyd started shaking, clinging to Zane's white sleeve. "Zaaaane…" he looked up at the taller one, panic starting in his eyes.

"I'll take care of this Lloyd…" Zane took out his sharp, golden shurakins. Lloyd looked at them. The day they met, Zane got those. "Who's there?!" Zane demanded.

No one answered.

Lloyd got behind his protector, nervous at what would be coming. That's when Zane's thoughts were correct; two skeleton warriors opened the door. "Oh no…" one said.

"I suggest you leave," Zane ready to throw a shurakin.

"The place is surrounded… Lord Garmadon wants his son," the other ordered.

"Zane…" Lloyd squeaked. "You said my dad couldn't-"

"-Tell Lord Garmadon that Lloyd is too busy," Zane said, cutting Lloyd off because he just didn't want to deal with any of the family issues now. He looked at the prince behind him, "Lloyd… when I say so… run…" the short child nodded.

They backed up against the large stain glass window in Lloyd's room. Zane looked behind him and took his left weapon and smashed the colored glass panes and grabbed Lloyd's hand. The assassin let out a whistle then yelled, "JUMP!"

The one in white dragged the boy in green with him as they leaped out the window. The two skeletons ran to the broken window and watched them fall.

Lloyd was about to think his life was over when a white dragon swooped under and caught them. "Thank you Shard," Zane petted his riding dragon along the neck. Lloyd clung to his protector. He never had flown before. It was both terrifying and exciting.

"Where are we going now Zane?" Lloyd loudly said over the wind.

"I'm keeping you safe! We'll go somewhere far off… where they won't track us…" Zane steered his pet around and flew for the woods; and by the woods; the small town in the valley.

The skeletons regrouped and started off in a similar direction.

**Now is where the others come into it ;) Hope you're enjoying my little twist ^^**

**See ya later ;) **

**~Mar**


	5. Two of Gold

It was almost dawn and Shard was happily resting under the cover of the large trees of the forest. Zane looked up at the sky and then down at Lloyd. He looked to Shard, "Shard, I am going to search the area… find where we are exactly… I want you to protect Lloyd if I am not back and something happens". Shard nodded and Zane ran off to have a look as quickly as possible.

"Remember Shard… even if Lloyd fights you, toss him on your back and sail for the farthest place possible!" Shard nodded again.

Zane started off and found the trail and followed it out of the trees and into the small village he vaguely remembered traveling through years ago, before he settled down as the prince's protector.

People were just starting to get up and start work, among those was the blacksmith shop. Zane looked around and quickly walked over, seeing as the shop was closest and rather vacant.

Kai yawned and took out his apron and tied it on, walking into the shop part of the home. "KAI!" he turned to the open door. "Kai! I'm going into town and buying some eggs and milk!"

"Aw come on Daisie, I just bought some two days ago…" Kai sighed back. "I need some help around here…"

"I'll be gone for a little bit… you want breakfast right?" Daisie, dressed in pink, walked out and past him with a small bag. "Nya can help you, same as always…"

"No way!" Nya walked out with her short, bobbed hair a frazzled mess. "Why do I always have to do the hard work? I wanted to go to the lake and swim!"

"You try making swords…" Kai grumbled.

"I _do_ make most of the swords…" Nya yawned, stretching in her red robe. "I'm getting dressed… get to work," Nya pointed as she walked back inside.

"How can I?" Kai rolled his eyes. "Not like I'm any good…"

"Blackman!" Kai turned.

"Aw no…"

"Come on, you said you'd fix my pickaxe… is it done yet?" a much taller, dark haired young man walked over to the shop opening.

Kai closed his brown eyes; he didn't want to deal with this today, not him anyways. "Listen Stone, I said I'll see what I can do. You brought it in yesterday morning," Kai folded his arms and leaned against his wooden counter. "And we're not opened yet".

"Well sorry, but I kind of need it. I was able to get one day off and I am pretty sure that my family could use the money…"

"Yea well so can I, you never even paid me half upfront… you didn't even pay anything yet… remember the deal?"

"Yea I remember… but I said I can pay you when I get paid, and to do that I kind of need my tools…" Cole looked apologetic.

Kai rolled his head back and growled. He hated it when Cole was right. "Hey Nya?" Kai called to his twin sister. She came out, hair still frumpy looking but fully dressed.

"What is it?" She wiped her brown eyes and looked over. "Oh… hey Cole…" she yawned the greeting.

"Miss Nya," Cole acknowledged her with a bit of a smile.

"What is it Kai?" she looked t her brother, leaning against the wooden counter with him. She looked rather impatient today.

"Where're the tools that Cole brought in yesterday? I'm gonna finish them today," Kai nodded his head back to the other in the room.

"Yea I have them…" Nya went back in but came out with two different sized pickaxes and a small mallet.

"Nya… these are all fixed…" Kai looked at the three in astonishment.

Nya stretched again and rubbed the back of her neck with her left hand. "Well yea, I mean what did you think I was doing all night?"

Kai looked at her. "Nya…" Kai sighed. "You can't do everything…"

"And you can't do anything," she laughed at her own comeback. She looked back over at Cole, "here ya go Cole, you don't have to pay for the mallet fixing, that one's on us…" she tiredly smiled. "Pay when ya can; got it?"

"Thanks Miss Nya," Cole threw her back a bag of of coins, "Always can count on you". Nya looked fairly surprised upon catching the satchel and smiled. He took his tools and looked at Kai, "See you around Blackman…" Cole walked out, however, running into the assassin in white. "Hey, ya wanna watch it?"

"Uh… my apologies…" Zane quickly said. "Uh…" he watched Cole walk off so Zane went inside.

"Not open yet…" Kai tiredly said as he started the fire up. Nya was walking back inside and shot him a look telling him to not be a crank. "You need something?" Kai looked over, sighing.

"Well, where am I… uh… exactly?" Zane asked.

"Uh, the West Ninja Valley…?" Kai raised an eyebrow. "You know I have no idea why it's even called that, I mean, there haven't been ninja here for like… centuries… why you asking? New to town?"

"Well, sort of…" Zane scratched the back of his head. Kai was fumbling around with tools and other weapons in the barrels when his gold sword fell out. "Danggit…" Kai picked it up quickly.

Zane looked at it, eyebrows raised. "Where did you get that?" he asked, studying the engravings.

"Uh… found it…" Kai quickly said, trying to stash it back where no one could find it again.

"It looks quite rare, being made of gold and all…" Zane tried to push for more. "And those engravings are even more unusual…"

"Why you asking? It's not for sale… it's my uh… personal weapon…" he looked around. Zane blinked. "Listen… don't tell my sister I have this… I'm not looking forward to telling her some stuff I've been through…"

"Of course… I ask because… I have these," Zane held up his golden shurakins, "Coincidence?" he smirked. "Or destiny?"

"I don't believe in any of that garbage…" Kai rolled his eyes, facing away from the one in white.

"Listen… I'm Zane… I'm a royal assassin…" he looked around, "Last night skeletons attacked us at the palace… the king is gone, and… and I have the prince with me".

"Life is tough my friend," Kai nodded. "Now can you get out of my store? It's called _Four Weapons _not _For Browsing_".

"What, you don't believe me?" Zane plainly asked. "Do I look like the untrustworthy kind?" He pulled out a gold seal. "This is the prince's everyone knows what this is…"

"Okay I believe you but… I just mean… what would you like me to do about it?" Kai brought his voice down. "Buddy, I'm eighteen and I live here with my cousin and my twin sister… I pretty much stink at making weapons, business is slow, and I'm too busy with my own problems to help you, sorry".

Kai turned and went back to work, setting things up for business hours.

"I have a dragon too you know… he gave me my shurakins…" Zane said out of the blue.

"How did you know about Flame?!" Kai held his sword up, now seeming agitated by his presence. "The king isn't taking me or him… sorry buddy."

"My king and master placed the weapons with the dragons… I never knew about another besides Shard though…"

"And Shard is?"

"My dragon… and loyal friend," Zane answered.

Kai rolled his head back. He didn't have time for this now. Nya was inside, rooms away, he was worried she'd hear and Daisie could be back within the hour. "Listen… what would be in it… for me?" Zane raised an eyebrow. "Not that I'm a greedy selfish person or anything but…" he said under his breath, "my parents are gone and we're low on funds now… I need to support my sis…"

"In that case I am sure that the king would happily reward you," Zane said. "Come with me if you'd like to meet Lloyd… I will show you where we are camped," Zane motioned for the blacksmith to follow him.

Kai bit his lip and looked at the door. "Hey Nya… uh… you know, I forgot… I should take uh… Ash for some exercise, he didn't get much yesterday and it's been raining and stuff…"

"Okay Kai… wanna take Steela out too?" she called, asking. Kai looked at Zane.

"Ever rode a horse?"

"Plenty," Zane shrugged and the two walked out.

**And Zane met Kai :3**

**Man I love how I don't have to go and revise this before posting because my mom read it through and corrected everything XD Still trying to get my dad past the prologue! XD  
**

**Okay see ya later :D**

**~Mar**


	6. And Then There Were Three

The two rode through the forest until Kai looked around, something seemed oddly familiar. The two young men flinched when they heard the sound of a child's yell. They snapped the reins and rode faster until they stopped at a place Kai knew.

A blonde kid in green robes was on the ground. A white dragon with blue and gold markings at his head and a red standing over him, part of his nose against his cheek with a large, pink tongue gently lapping the face of the boy under him. Zane was about to spring into action when he realized Lloyd was laughing.

"AH COME ON!" he squealed with laughter. "STOP! THAT TICKLES! HAHA!" Zane breathed in relief and got off Nya's horse.

"Flame?"

"Yea…" Kai followed and got off his own horse. "Hey Flame!" Kai ran over to his pet. "I take it you have some new friends?" The red dragon snorted a 'yes'.

"Zane? Who's this?" Lloyd stood up, leaning on Shard's snout, looking a little nervous at the newcomer.

"This is Kai… he has… a weapon like mine," Zane prompted Kai to show the prince his sword.

Kai shrugged and unsheathed the gold sword. "Whoa…" Lloyd looked at it. "… Zane?" he looked up at his friend, "When can I go home?"

"Soon enough… Kai said he'd help us…" Zane nodded towards the blacksmith.

"KAI!" the young man with the brown hair flinched. "Blast… that's my cousin…" Kai rubbed his face in grief. He looked at the two. "Uh… listen… maybe… maybe you guys can come and eat with us… uh… Daisie's a decent enough cook… but uh… we can't say that you guys are from the palace…"

"Fair enough…" Zane went to help Lloyd up on Steela when Lloyd stopped him.

"Wait!" Lloyd said loudly. He looked over at Kai. "Can I ride with you?"

Zane was somewhat surprised Lloyd had taken to a complete stranger. The child never got along well with others besides Zane and his uncle, Wu, and even with him there was tension. Kai looked at Zane to see if it'd be okay. The assassin nodded once and Kai shrugged.

"Okay then," Kai mounted and Lloyd hopped up in front of him.

"So are you good at riding horses?" Lloyd looked up and asked.

Kai started off and answered the child's many questions as they went, "Sure, I guess. I prefer riding Flame though… I keep these two around because they were my parent's".

"Were?" Lloyd blinked.

"They… uh… aren't here anymore…" Kai quietly said, uncomfortable with the question topic.

"Oh…" Lloyd looked away. "… my momma and daddy aren't… around anymore either…" Lloyd looked down at the moving ground beneath the hooves of the horses.

Kai frowned. "I'm… sorry your highness…"

"Can you just call me Lloyd?" the young one looked behind him. "I like my name… all I here is you're highness…"

"Okay then… Lloyd," Kai looked over at Zane who smiled as he hung back on his sister's horse. "Okay, here we go… Flame and Shard will be fine where they are. No one goes that far because I spread a rumor about monsters in that part of the woods".

They started getting dismount. "In all fairness, a monster does live there," Zane said.

They walked in and Nya was in the shop front part of their home. The black haired girl looked up and saw Zane and Lloyd behind her brother. "Uh… company or clients?" she blinked not knowing how to respond.

"Uh guests Nya…" Kai coughed and motioned for Zane to hide his shurakins away as he did the same with his gold sword. "This is uh… Zane and his brother Lloyd".

"Friends of yours?" Nya tilted her head. Kai nodded. "Okay, then uh welcome to the Four Weapons," she smiled.

"They were traveling and got lost and I offered to help them…" Kai walked past her.

His sister slowly nodded, "I'll tell Daisie then that two more will be joining," she brushed her orange apron off and skipped inside.

Lloyd smiled, "I like her," he walked inside with the others. "She's nice".

"You better believe it kid…" Kai folded his arms and grinned. "I got the best sister in the world…"

"Well, I wish I had a sister… or a brother who could play with me…" Lloyd sighed. "Well, besides Zane…"

Kai side grinned. Lloyd didn't seem like the brat he imagined a prince would be. He had problems just like himself; it certainly made him feel sorrier for the lonely boy. Kai at least had Daisie and Nya…

Nya…

He looked at his sister's dress, doing a double take from earlier. It was a rather nice dress. A little too nice from what her normal wardrobe was. Though she tried to conceal it under her apron, it was a red dress with blue and white flowers with gold spangled birds dotted all over it; a nice dress indeed.

"Hey sis…" Kai slowly started, not knowing how to ask such a question.

"Yea Kai?" She kindly responded as she walked in and placed wooden cups around the table.

"Where… where did you get that dress?" Kai blinked. "I never saw that one before".

Nya almost dropped her tray and looked up; their identical brown eyes looked in the other's. "Uh…" she opened her mouth but nothing could be found to come out of it. "Had it… for a while… uh… one of mom's old dresses I found in some old crates… that's all".

"I don't… remember that dress…" Kai looked confused. His mother had many beautiful dresses because his father's shop was doing so well. She was spoiled with a new dress all the time. But one thing she never liked was gold and jewels on her dresses.

"Oh yea, I think it was before we were around," Nya smiled, a small twitch in the corner of her mouth. Kai shook his head and just sat down. Now Nya was scraping together profits so she could have nice things. Kai felt bad, he wished he could buy her whatever she wanted whenever. Lloyd sat between Kai and Zane, Nya on Kai's other side and Daisie at the head of the table.

Kai constantly looked at his sister who kept looking up from her breakfast back at Kai. Lloyd looked back and forth at the two. "So are you guys… uh…twins?"

Kai was rather thankful for conversation. "Yea, not identical of course…" Kai nodded, half laughing.

"But you do have the same eyes," Zane pointed out.

"Nah, Nya's the one with nice eyes," Kai thumbed his sister who blushed.

"Aw, such a sweet brother you are," Daisie laughed. "Always a gentleman that one," she pointed at Kai who blushed too. "Always looking out for his little sister!"

"I'm not that little Daisie!" Nya snapped back.

"Nya, it's not like you're an hour apart, you're almost a day apart," Daisie reminded the black haired one. "Oh you know, when I was in town this morning I heard something about that "Red Mask" character! Really stirring things up in town!"

Nya kept herself out of the conversation. Kai looked over at her. "I actually saw her yesterday… she reminded me a lot of you sis," Kai poked her in the shoulder. "Same kind of laugh".

"Oh really? Like I could be so good at sword fighting and jumping over roofs and… and stealing is wrong!"

"All she's stolen from is people who cheated money out of others though," Kai blinked.

"Interesting," Zane commented. "A vigilante then? And a girl…"

"So she's like a superhero!" Lloyd hopped in his seat, excited by the topic.

"I think that's a load of rubbish!" Nya stood up and started clearing plates for Daisie. "Ladies can't… can't do anything… we cook, clean…" she stopped.

"Finish making all their brother's orders for work?" Kai laughed. "Being a blacksmith isn't a 'girl' job…"

"Oh be quiet… just because I'm decent at being a blacksmith means absolutely nothing about women…" Nya frowned and walked into the washing room.

The five were taken away from their conversation when they heard an explosion hit. Kai ran to the window with Zane. "That's from the Stone house…" Kai grumbled and rolled his head back.

"What's wrong with them?" Zane asked politely.

"Dad likes theatrics…" Kai muttered, looking at the smoke rising up. He stopped for a moment and started out the door and grabbed his sword sheath. "But this time it doesn't look like that was planned!"

"I'll come with you," Zane followed.

"I'll stay here with Nya and Lloyd," Daisie smiled and held Lloyd's hand.

The two boys ran out. Kai led the way through the small village of residential houses. "Cole is the guy that came in this morning if you saw him on the way out…" Kai explained. Zane nodded. "He's a coal miner… and yea I know it's ironic…"

"Cole the coal miner… interesting…" Zane let himself laugh at that.

"And his family lives by the mines…" they ran through and stopped. "And... It looks like someone wasn't doing a good job with the explosives…" the one in red sighed. "Come on!"

"EVERYONE OUT!" they heard a voice. Kai knew that voice very well and saw the taller, black hair boy run out. But it was what was in his hand that surprised him. A large scythe made of gold; that made Zane stop and stare too.

Cole looked up and ahead and almost dropped the scythe. "You both…"

"Yea…" The two said together.

"Three weapons of gold?" Kai blinked. "How does this work out?"

"What did you name your dragons then?" Cole sighed, looked to his left to make sure that that was the last person to run out.

"Shard…"

"Flame; and yours?"

"I'd rather not…" Cole coughed. The two looked at him. "Fine… Rocky…"

The two started snickering at the hilarity of the name. Of all things, 'Rocky'.

"Gee, why not just name him pebbles or dirt?" Kai doubled over, laughing. "Oh man… I CAN'T BREATHE!" he gasped out.

"HEY!" Cole snapped. "Don't you dare laugh about my dragon; he could take yours down no trouble!"

"COLE!" the owner of the name looked over.

"Cameron! Camilla!" Cole scooped the two young ones up and hugged them tight. "I'm okay, don't worry, I got everyone out…"

"Everyone?" the girl looked up at him, not believing. They all had matching gray eyes, dark skin, and thick, black hair.

"All… except for Thaiwen…" Cole sighed. "He was the one that got blown up with the blast powder… would you… would you mind going to his house and telling his cousin Helen and his grandmother?" He set the two down.

"Sure thing Cole…" the boy nodded sadly and ran off with his sister.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE SPINJITSU MASTER WAS THAT?!" A woman who looked like Cole except for less muscular and more feminine ran over. "You scared dad and me half to death!"

"Colette not now!" he snapped back. "Someone just died okay!?"

"… Okay…" she looked away. "I'm sorry to hear that…" she looked up. "Come on… show dad for yourself you're okay".

"Okay…" Cole held his breath. "Then… I have some things to discuss with my friends here…" he eyed the red and white ones as he walked along, being dragged by the hand of his other sister.

**Hehe... had to make the Rocky joke because seriously... it's funny... **

**also... Imma get my pretty Cocktiel birdie this weekend! His name shall be Garmadon Anakin John Franken Adam von Schwartz I **

**Okay maybe I exaggerated... lol... or maybe I should give him a name like that... hehehe... It combines Ninjago, Star Wars, Doctor Who (He goes by John Smith a bunch of times), Soul Eater, and my favorite male singer! And I added Von because it sounds dignified... the little 'I' at the end does too XD **

**Seeing how well I do with one I might get him a lady friend... that's what my mom said anyways XD I'd pry go with Misako Padme Rose Marie Taylor von Schwartz I because it matches my OTPs (GarmadonxMisako, AnakinxPadme, TenxRose, and SteinxMarie) and as for artists Adam Young from Owl City and Taylor Swift XD **

**I am so amazing with names I know XD**

**So, I hope you are as excited as I am because I swear all you will start to hear is my ridiculous bird stories XD **

**Hope you enjoyed this update :) Love ya guys and have a great day! **

**~Mar**


	7. The Inventor and the Vigilante

"See dad? He's alive… he's okay…" Colette shut the door.

The man sitting in the chair, with his left foot up on stool, bandaged up with a frown on his face shook his head, "Why couldn't you do something more than be a miner?"

"Sorry but I'm not that skilled dad," Cole folded his arms and looked away. Sometimes he simply couldn't stand his own dad.

"You're mother was too soft on you…"

Cole growled, "And you're not soft enough!" he snapped back. He shook his head and opened the door, "I'm going to a friend's place… see ya later…"

He slammed the wooden door behind him, making it rattle when it hit the threshold and Colette was afraid it would fall off its hinges.

"Okay… what's going on here?" Cole folded his arms. The three were standing in a circle, looking at the other, not sure what to think.

"We all have a golden weapon… and a dragon… this isn't a coincidence…" Kai sighed.

"Not to mention we all keep these weapons and dragons secret from those around us…" Zane added. "I think this happened for a reason…"

"And what reason would that be?" Cole rolled his eyes, annoyed at the whole situation. He was also remembering the very short conversation minutes ago with his dad which put him in a bad mood.

"I am not sure…" Zane shook his head, admitting. "I never foresaw anybody else with gold weapons… Not yet anyways".

"Well we better figure it out quickly if what you said was true about skeletons attacking the palace… we should get Lloyd out of here…" Kai looked around; feeling like someone would be listening to the three.

"Lloyd? As in PRINCE LLOYD?!" Cole's mouth dropped.

"SHH!" Kai hissed. "Yea, he's at my place with Nya and Daisie…" Kai impatiently said.

"If anything were to happen Nya could totally handle herself though," Cole pointed to Kai. "She's the most incredible girl Ninjago has ever known and you know that Kai".

"She's no fighter though…" Kai sighed.

"HAHA!" the red cloaked girl laughed and slung her rapier around. "Sayonara you horrible cheapskates!" she waved her bag of gold around, used the rapier to cut the small wood clasp of the wooden window shutters, and flipped out the opened window onto the roof and hopped them until she was outside the main part of the city, into the hillside homes.

"NO ONE CATCHES THE RED MASK!"

"I'LL GET YOU YOU BRAT!" an older man stuck his head out the shuttered windows, wagging his fist at the young woman. She laughed and ran as fast as she could.

She sat on the roof of a slanted home outside the main town and smiled, looking at the gold coins as she opened the small pouch. "Who should I leave these with tonight?" she smiled brighter, seeing her reflection the shiny metallic circles.

"Someone up there?" she froze, hearing a voice. She pocketed some coins in her tunic and tied the bag up. She always kept a small percentage, how else would her loved ones survive?

The young woman in red was about ready to leave when a boy about her age climbed up and froze, looking at her. "You're…" he squeaked.

"Yea I know…" the girl rolled her eyes and pulled her red cloak more over her black bobbed hair.

"The Red Mask…" he grinned, finishing his sentence. "I'm Jay!" she looked at him, messy red brown hair, and big alluring blue eyes that seemed to make her heart melt. "I've been hearing quite a bit about you! You have some of the coolest gadgets! Can I see them? PLEASE?! I'm an inventor! Or… at least… I wanna be one… at the palace!"

"What a dream… I love inventing too," she smiled and took out a grappling hook mechanism. "This one, it bottles up air and it's released when I press the trigger…" she stood up… "Now… I kind of have to go now… uh… nice to meet you Jay". She felt she had to get away before her heart started thudding so loud he could hear it.

"WAIT!" Jay tripped and her hook misfired, getting herself tangled up in it and hung off the side of Jay's roof, upside down. "Oh no let me get you down miss…" Jay frantically tried to untie the wires and string.

"Listen I can get down… I think," she tried to move her arms. "Ow…" she felt the twine pinching her light skin. "Okay… that's tight…"

"You know… I always wondered what you really looked like…" Jay smirked when he got down.

"Please don't…" she uneasily laughed and then went serious when he reached for her red mask. "I mean it…"

"Oh… why not?" Jay folded his arms, mad at the fact he may never know who she was really.

"The Red Mask never reveals her identity to protect the ones she loves…" she turned her head away from him in a snooty manner but didn't mean it of course.

"Oh fine!" Jay rolled his eyes. He went next to her ear, "But I will know who you are… some day," he grinned.

She raised her eyebrows and looked at his upside down smile which made her blush. "Uh… can you… can you uh, help me now?" she giggled.

"OH YEA!" Jay jumped and ran around the corner to his shed and snagged his cutters. He came back and cut her down carefully. She jumped to her feet and fixed her hair and hood.

"Thank you," she smiled. "Here…" she gave him the pouch of coins she snagged earlier. "I think it's your turn," she smiled.

"Thanks," he looked down and away then he quickly kissed her cheek and ran inside before she could see him blush.

She removed her hood and her black hair fell around her face, she felt her mask slip off and she took it with one hand, her other was touching the spot where he pecked her on the cheek. "Boy or boy Nya you just met the most incredible boy in the world…"

She gave a squeal she kept as a quiet as possible as she spun around and twirled a little ways along the path until she came across her horse, Steela. "Come on… let's go home girl," she stroked the horse's white mane.

**Oh gosh finally I'm getting around to updates! Sorry to keep ya'll waiting XD I got my birdie! He's so awesome! I get to visit him every day if I want for the next month because they're still feeding him formula... my mom think it's a boy because I read somewhere that boy birds warm up to girls better... so either he's my Garmadon or my Mimi... or Misako IDK XD **

**So yeaaaa, this was a good chap to write. I wanted a Spider-Man kissy thing almost but not quite XD **

**It's a bit hard for me to write Jay and Nya sometimes and it's funny because the rest of the fandom seems to have a hold of it and I'm the one who's been told I'm the master of Garmadon and Misako... you guys seriously think that!? I mean really!? **

**Anyways I have a little poem thing that I drew and wrote off the top of my head on DA last night... I'm thinking of typing it out and posting it here... I pretty much am the only person who appreciates their relationship ;~; (maybe that's true maybe it's not)**

**Anyways... uh thanks for reading! Means a lot since this is my turn around, when I started writing this I promised myself to keep improving so yep... have a good day... or night XD**

**~Mar**


	8. Toying With Fate

"So that's the kid huh?" Cole poked his head into the small guest room where Lloyd was sleeping peacefully.

"Yea… cute isn't he?" Daisie giggled and shut the door walking out. "Kai, have you seen your sister?" she walked into the small sitting room in the front that led to the workshop.

"I'm home," Nya walked through the door with a shoulder bag obviously stuffed. Kai looked at her curiously. "Oh, hello Cole," Nya smiled as she walked past into her room.

"Uh, hi Miss Nya…" Cole watched her walk past him. "Doesn't she think it's weird I'm here or something?"

"She seems out of her head…" Zane observed. "Compared to this morning anyways…"

Nya walked back out in her red sleeping robes she just threw on. "Yes Zane… you see… I met this boy today…" she giggled.

"A boy? Who is he!? I'll tear him to pieces!" Kai growled.

"Kai stop it! He was so adorable… with red brown, fluffy hair… and these wonderful blue eyes… and freckles…" she giggled to herself as she sat on a cushion and leaned against the thin walls.

"She's lost it…" Kai's mouth dropped. "My little sis has lost it…"

"Oh Kai! I'm eighteen!" Nya snapped at him. "You're telling me it's unnatural for a girl my age to find a man and get married?!"

"No…" Kai grumbled.

"Good… now that we got that out of the way, here," Nya tossed him a pouch with some gold coins. "That's for paying off this place… we're almost done…"

"Nya… where did you get this?" Kai looked at her. "How did you come up with this money for this month?"

"I work outside the shop you know…" Nya narrowed her eyes. "How do you think I make ends meet!?"

Cole and Zane looked at each other. "Uh… Kai, back off, she's trying to help you…" Cole folded his arms.

"No! I'm the man of the house now," Kai thumbed to himself. "It's my job to take care of _you_, Nya…"

"Whatever Kai…" Nya sighed and stood up and walked to her room. "I'm going to bed…" She looked at Zane and Cole. "Wake me up when he appreciates what I do…" she rolled her eyes and walked into her room.

Kai just sat, grumbling. "Come on… Zane you can stay in my room… Cole…" he looked at the taller one. "I guess we'll see you tomorrow".

"Night," Cole walked out.

Wu walked up the side of the mountain and stood at the top, looking around. It was dark out and it was a full moon. It was chilly for early spring and the wind was blowing more than normal. "I know you're there Misako". He mildly smiled.

"How did you know I'd be here?" a voice came out of the dark. She had a sword on her hip and a long green skirt and a scarf to match. "In fact… what are you doing here?" she pulled the sword out by the hilt and held it out, threateningly.

"I only came because of what Zane foresaw…" Wu held his hands up in defense. "I thought-"

"Wait; Zane?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He saved Lloyd when he was younger… he's his personal guard now… he has been a wonderful friend for him…" Wu answered. "Garmadon's going to kidnap Lloyd…"

"Garmadon would never hurt his son," Misako stepped slowly. "I told you I didn't want to see you until I sought you out…"

"What were you planning on doing Misako?" she remained silent. "You were going to go down into the Underworld weren't you?" Misako didn't answer. "Misako…" he looked at her.

"He must be so alone though," she shook her head. Her hands that were tightly gripping the sword were trembling, tears forming.

"He is a monster… he tried to kill me…" he quietly kept throwing comebacks at her.

"He was cornered and scared and you just dropped him," she said back, continuing to coldly grip her sword handle with an icy glare.

"You wanted me dead then…"

"No… I wanted both of you getting along; like how it use to be… so many years ago…" Misako looked away from him, lowering her sword and leaning back against a rock. "I want to see him… even if it's one last time… do you know what it's like?" she looked at him. "To have the one you loved dragged away from you?" she started raising her voice, gripping the sword hilt so hard again it would cause blisters.

"Believe me… I know…" he quietly said, keeping his bamboo woven hat covering his eyes.

"Please leave now Wu…" Misako looked at him, her voice was cracking. "I have my own business to take care of…" she turned away but stopped. "Lloyd… he's… he's fine now… right? He's safe?"

"He thinks he's an orphan Misako… he thinks you both never wanted him…" Wu finally told her. He was growing mad at her and thus decided to resort to guilt.

"I know…" she breathed, "which is why I have my own business to take care of," she gritted her teeth, repeating the statement. Wu sighed and shook his head and started stepping away.

"Fine… I'll leave to your misery…" he shook his head.

"Thanks," she didn't look back.

"Lloyd… wake up…" Nya smiled and gently shook the little boy. He opened his tired green eyes and smiled.

"Hello Nya…" he yawned.

Nya tilted her head and studied him. Green robes and bleach blonde hair… and emerald eyes. She stopped and her mouth opened to say something when she ran out quickly, leaving little Lloyd surprised.

"KAI!" She loudly said for seven in the morning. "KAI!" she jumped on his cot and shook him roughly.

"MEH! WHA-Ny-Nya?" he jumped in an upright position, pillow flying off the bed.

"… is that the prince in our guest room!?" she abruptly said.

"What?" Kai shook his head.

"Is that PRINCE Lloyd?" Nya pointed out of her brother's door.

"Oh yea…" Kai yawned and got up, putting his house slippers on; totally ignoring Nya's overreaction. "Didn't I tell you?"

"Don't you think that's like… insane!?" she followed him out. "What is he doing here!? Wait… Ty-Lee told me that Ange told her that Marty's cousin's husband's sister said-"

"You lost me sis," Kai yawned, walking into the shop and looking out the window.

"Ugh," she rolled her eyes. "The skeletons attacked the palace two days ago… they're looking for that boy!"

"I know Ny, I know… Zane told me everything yesterday… and we told Cole…"

"Don't you think I should have known first?!" Nya angrily said. "You don't even like Cole!"

"I don't know… I'd thought you'd freak out over royalty or something…" Kai shrugged. "What, you wanna kick the kid out and have bad guys nab him?"

"Heck no!" Nya snapped. "I'll protect that poor child with my life!" she started shouting.

"Nya?" Lloyd poked his head in. "Are you okay? You scared me the way you ran out of my room…" he hid the lower half of his face behind the door.

"I'm just fine…" she smiled and bent over to him. He was quite small for a twelve year old which is what allowed her to pick him up so easily. Kai always wondered why his sister was so strong anyways. "… Hey after I get ready… would you like to come into town with me? I have stuff to do and I'm sure sitting around here would be boring".

"I don't know Nya…" Kai interrupted. "What if something happens?"

"Nothing will happen Kai, not while I'm around," she rolled her eyes. "And maybe I'll treat him to something sweet".

"Sweet? I love sugar cookies!" Lloyd grinned. Nya laughed.

"… oh fine" Kai rolled his eyes and went in to get dressed.

"I'll tell Zane," Lloyd ran off to pester his body guard, cheerily.

**... I'm still so excited to be writing this XD this has to be the most I have ever had on writing anything before! I love writing my own adaption for Ninjago XD **

**So thanks for reading :) Who's adapted character do you like the most? What do you think Misako plans to do? Or where Wu was going when he stopped off at he mountain?**

**Hahahaha...**

**Well thank you so kindly for reading :3**

**~Mar**


	9. Sweet

Nya held Lloyd's smaller hand as he got off Steela. She smiled as he did so. The small child was looking around as they walked; taking in the sight around him. The marketplace was very busy today and it was obvious the small boy didn't leave the palace very much.

As they were walking, Nya tripped forward on the cobblestone street, letting go of Lloyd's hand. She went sailing for the ground when a pair of hands caught her. She looked up and her brown eyes widened greatly.

"Oh my gosh are… you okay?" he stopped talking slowly. Nya stood all the way up. The two were still unaware they were holding hands until they looked down and they abruptly and shyly let go.

"You're uh… Jay… right?" Nya asked, one foot messing with her other.

Jay blinked and paused before answering, "Uh… have we met before?" Nya's face turned pink at the realization he never met Nya Blackman but her persona. "Because… I'd remember you…"

That made Nya start to sweat. "Oh uh… I'm Nya? I work at the Four Weapons shop… uh… you're parents uh brought in some tools uh… like a month ago… mentioned uh, they had a boy, Jay". She quickly said with an uneasy smile.

"Oh yea… my parents brag about me a lot… don't they? I'm not as good as they say though…" he scratched the back of his head shyly.

Lloyd was watching the two go back and forth with each other, not quite knowing what was going on exactly, but he seemed left out and tugged on the sleeve of Nya's white lacy shirt sleeve.

"Oh sorry Lloyd," Nya turned attention back to him.

"A friend?" Jay looked down and grinned at the kid.

Nya nodded, "Uh yea… his uncle is away and he and uh… his brother are staying over at my place…" she smiled at the young blonde. "We were heading to the bakery. Would you like to come with us?" she politely asked him.

"Sure thing," Jay accepted her offer and walked alongside the two. "You know… you look rather familiar… even your voice sounds like I've heard it somewhere…"

"Oh well, I have one of those voices… and uh looks I guess," Nya looked away. "One of those average people hehehe…" she trailed off.

"No… you seem really familiar… maybe we saw each other some time ago…" Jay shrugged. "Oh well".

Nya was relieved to see he had let it go. In fact he did see her recently, last night to be exact, but Nya was the Red Mask and she had to keep it secret from everyone. Whether it is Kai or this new guy she liked.

They walked another block down to the bakery and Lloyd immediately started grinning like an idiot which made Nya smile too. The poor child went through so much; parental abandonment, watching his father turn into a monster and be banished, and being hunted after by skeletons.

"Okay, I'm gonna buy a dozen, any preferences?" Nya bent over to see eye level, knowing what he was gonna come up with.

Lloyd looked over and smiled, "Can we get sugar cookies?"

"I'm not surprised, you sugar addict," she ruffled his hair and he giggled.

Jay looked over at Nya and saw her eyeing the basket of honey cakes and sigh, taking out enough for the cookies. "Hey uh… don't you want anything?" he asked her.

"Oh… uh nah… that's okay," she shrugged. "Tight on cash, no big deal". She handed Lloyd her basket and he started eating one. They too started walking and Jay smiled and took out his small pouch of money. "Jay are you coming?" He heard her ask.

"Yep," he walked over to her. "Here's a piece".

"Oh… thank you," she smiled at the honey cake. "Hardly necessary though… you should keep that money," she smiled.

"Nah, I had plenty… that Red Mask girl gave it to me last night… she was something else, that girl…" he laughed. "I loved her inventions…"

"I love inventing myself… I actually handle most of the blacksmith work," she admitted. "Don't tell Kai I said that… he'll be embarrassed".

Lloyd was quietly walking along with them, engrossed in his cookies happily. "So… you got a sweet tooth yourself huh?" Jay asked, looking on the other side of her at Lloyd.

"Oh not really," Nya shook her head. "I don't mind them but… it's honey cake I like… you see, my mom use to bake… a lot. She sold that on the side and my dad was the blacksmith shop owner".

"Oh that's nice…" he paused and looked at her as they walked. "Use to? Was?"

Nya sadly looked at her feet and continued walking, "They're gone now is all…" she brushed her hair back behind her ears, staring at their walking feet on stone path.

"I'm sorry… I uh… lost someone who was close to me too… like… six years ago about…" Jay nodded.

"Well, we should be off," Nya lifted her head and abruptly said. "I have more shopping to do…" She walked quickly past him, "Come on Lloyd!"

Jay raised an eyebrow and watched her trot off with the small boy. Nya was wearing a red cape around her shoulder. He didn't really notice it earlier when he was walking with her, but seeing her running off; it billowed behind her in the wind. That girl was getting stranger and stranger.

**Another Jaya chapter for you :3 Thanks for reading! :D **

**~Mar**


	10. Four of Gold

"Hmm, I do not like the idea of Lloyd out, alone with Nya," Zane sat against the wall on the floor.

Kai was trying to work on a new sword, hammering away. Kai then side-glanced at the other two guys sitting more inside and sighed, "Hey Stone, don't you have a job?" he hit his mallet against the red glowing metal.

"Mines blew up, remember sir dorkalot?" Cole snapped back.

That made Kai mad and he raised the burning hot sword. "You gonna call the guy with the burning sword _'Sir Dorkalot'_?" Cole didn't say anything and looked away. Kai went back over to finish his hammering.

"I have a feeling that something not so good will happen today…" Zane quietly commented. Cole raised an eyebrow as he slowly turned his head to the right to see the assassin sitting across from him.

"Uh… what do you mean? It's a great day… not a cloud in-"

"No… two nights ago skeleton armies were attacking. Surely they would find Lloyd and me here… I wonder where the king ran off to though…" Zane interrupted, waving off what Cole said. He was obviously deep in thought.

"So… the skeletons come from the Underworld right?" Kai asked as he worked. Zane nodded. "And… they said that 'Garmadon' wants his son…" Kai took the sword and plunged it into the barrel of cold water.

He took it out and it had curled again. Cole snickered. "SHUT UP!" Kai threw the sword at him. Cole jumped out of the way before it hit him.

"What do you mean Kai?" Zane turned the one in red away from his anger towards Cole.

Kai sighed and sat down, "What I mean is…" he paused, looking around to see if Daisie was coming in, she wasn't, "What I mean is, that like… eight years ago… didn't the king announce that Prince Garmadon was found just… dead?" Kai frowned. "I know there were always the legends of him being banished… but; are those legends _true_?"

"Without a doubt I know that they said Garmadon. I think Lloyd always believed his father was not gone… just lost in the darkness". Zane agreed with Kai's idea.

"So if Garmadon is still alive… he must rule the Underworld… but what about the princess? His wife I mean…" Cole asked Zane.

"All I know about her is what I saw. I lived in the Imperial City before I even rescued Lloyd, and that was not long after he was turned in to the palace. Apparently, the princess took him away… why he was returned while she disappeared is beyond my knowledge".

"I wonder who she is… where she hides…" Kai muttered to himself.

"Excuse me," the three turned. "Does Miss Nya live here?" Kai stood up and looked at the boy who came in.

"Uh yea, but she's still out I think," Kai looked at him. "Uh, who're you anyways?"

"Name's Jay, Jay Walker. I'm a friend of hers," Jay smiled.

Kai's eyebrows rose. He must have been the one Nya described last night, he did match the description she gave. What did he want? "She never said anything about you to me…"

"Uh, new friend I should have said…" Jay uneasily smiled. "But uh, just wanted to know if she was back yet… she uh dropped this". He held up a pendant Kai was unfamiliar with.

It was a gold one with an infinity type symbol on it. Kai narrowed his eyes and saw it was like an eye mask with the initials 'R' and 'M'. Kai took it and looked at it harder. "R-M…" he whispered. "I never saw this one before… in fact… Nya's shown up with plenty of things I haven't seen before…"

"Oh well, I found it in the bakery when I went back to pick up something for my mom… it was right where she was standing". Jay shrugged. "Could be wrong… I'll just uh…" Jay's bag snagged on dowel rods in a barrel as he exited out of the shop.

It tore a hole in the satchel and out spilled its contents including a pair of nun chucks made of gold. Kai, Cole, and Zane jumped when they saw them. Jay quickly scrambled to pick them up and hide them before any questions could be asked.

"Four!?" Kai's mouth dropped. "FOUR Weapons!?" Kai held his head and sat down. This was too much for him.

"What do you mean?" Jay looked around. The other three took out their own gold weapons and Jay's mouth dropped so wide it might as well have taken up his whole face.

"This gets more and more interesting," Zane looked at the others. "It seems we all are connected somehow…" Everyone was looking at the other curiously.

"No way…" Jay shook his head and stepped back. "I am nothing special… I'm a lousy inventor…"

"And I'm just a bad old blacksmith," Kai frowned.

"Uh you forgot the jobless miner," Cole put his hand up a little.

"And the humble servant of the Prince…" Zane pondered aloud. "Jay, I take it you have a dragon companion?" he looked at the boy with red brown hair.

"Uh, Wisp, yea…" Jay nodded. "You have dragons too?" The three nodded. "This is so COOL!" he hopped. "We can like… have a secret club or like… like-"

"Be a team?" The four froze and turned around. An old man in a white kimono, with wooden sandals and a bamboo hat covering his eyes was standing the shop door.

The four young men swallowed, but then Zane realized who it was. Wu raised his head and looked the assassin in the eyes and ever so slightly shook his head.

"Who are you?" Kai asked. "How much do you know? How long have you been listening?"

Wu smiled, "My you're a fiery one… Kai is a suitable name for you, wielder of fire…" That made them even more confused and he laughed. "You see, I am Sensei Wu…" he looked around. "And Garmadon was my brother… those are my family weapons you possess".

Kai, Cole, Zane, and Jay stared at one another and then at their weapons. They looked the old man in the eye and knew that whatever had happened, they were roped into an awful mess that seemed to be planned out since the day they were born.

**THAT is where Wu was going dear friends. **

**He just decided to pop on by his ol friend's place and decide to make her feel guilty :D **

**BTW chapter 17, the second to last... that is my favorite chapter... why? Well let's just say that even my mom says I write Garmadon and Misako's parts very well... hahahahaha**

**Ahem... uh... so, any favorite parts so far? How am I doing? Are you to hear that this will be a consecutive series? Whose AU role do you like the best; do you think I did a good job with giving them roles? Do the small OCs bug you?  
**

**How do you feel about FrozenxNinjago crossover? (I saw Frozen and a couple people say for me to write one)**

**Zane: Elsa**

**Jay: Anna**

**Pixal: Hans (idk why I just thought that up)**

**Kai: Olaf**

**Cole: Reindeer Anthro Sven**

**Nya: Kristoff**

**Trolls: Skulkin**

**What do you think!? :D**

**Thanks for reading! :) **

**~Mar**


	11. Dark Skies

"Where is my nephew Zane?" Wu politely asked his servant.

Kai answered for him though and stepped forward, "He's out in the market with my twin sister… Nya…" he looked down. "I'm sorry if that caused trouble sir-"

"No, it is fine… and call me sensei, I always preferred that title…"

"Uh… sorry… sensei…" Kai said, quite confused. Why would he be their sensei?

Wu walked in more, "Something is happening that I never thought I'd see the day of… and that would be the time in which the dragons would choose their masters".

"Your highness I do not understand…" Zane shook his head. "What does all of this mean? You have kept a lid on everything… is Lloyd's father alive or not?"

"He is very much alive… but he is not the one I called brother… not for a very long time…" Wu kept his voice low. "Now he is in a living hell…"

Kai leaned over to the other three and whispered out of the corner of his mouth, "Is he going to relive some story with us?"

"Hush," Zane quickly said.

"The legend of Lord Garmadon is very true… but it is also true that my brother did not choose to be evil of his own accord… in fact… fate was simply cruel to him…" Wu started. "When we were very young, the woman who would grow up to marry my brother was our best friend. We were trained together by my father and thus started ninja".

"Ninja? Ninja are long gone," Cole looked around. "Right?"

"Wrong…" Wu looked at the black hair man. "A creature… a terrible creature called the Great Devourer was a snake; a horrible snake that was worshiped like a god by an ancient race of snake creatures and whose venom could turn the purest hearts black".

"So wait… your telling us he's not really evil?" Jay tilted his head.

"No he is… it was kept at bay for many years," Wu nodded. "Now come… I believe we must get the prince out of here…" he motioned for them to follow. Kai looked back and bit his lip but didn't bother to inform Daisie of where he was about to go.

"Hey! Nyaaaa!?" Lloyd looked around. Nya seemed to have disappeared and Lloyd was pretty lost in middle of the town. He started feeling scared as he tried to look for her.

He then heard shouting and saw a flash of red run by him. He turned and saw city guards running after the red blur. Lloyd curiously frowned.

Nya ran as fast as she could, sliding around each corner she could. Guards were on both sides of her in the alley so she started climbing up the wooden walls of the houses and shops till she got onto the roofs. "Gotta hide and change and get Lloyd and go home!" she ran through her plan in her head.

However, she heard the guards stop shouting and heard an eerie silence fall over the town as she looked up. The sky was growing darker and darker, black clouds rolled in as wind picked up and lightning and thunder sounded.

Lloyd, who was left in the market place, covered his ears at the sound of the weather. He sat down, scared of the noised. "I just wanna go home…" he whispered, on the verge of tears.

The sounds of skeletal horses and chariots came through the town, everyone fleeing. Nya looked down and gasped. The guards seemed to have forgotten about her so she made a quick change out of her red hood and mask and hopped two buildings over and climbed back down.

"LLOYD?!" she called.

Lloyd sat up right when he heard his name. "NYA?!" he jumped up this time.

"LLOYD!" Nya ran through and grabbed his hand. "Let's go!" she rushed him out. She let out a whistle and Steela came riding through. She put Lloyd up on the horse and then mounted herself on. She snapped the reins and rode as fast as they could ride.

Down the dirt road, Wu and the four looked up and saw Nya and Lloyd riding so fast, they over shot them. Kai looked back and started running after them. "NYA!" he called to her.

The black haired girl looked back and pulled on the reins. The others caught up to them and Zane helped Lloyd down and kept him close. "You'll be fine…"

"What's going on!?" Cole loudly asked.

"Skeletons!" Nya shouted over the wind that started whipping around them.

"Let us get out of here! We will take Lloyd somewhere safe… Kai, Cole, do you know anywhere?" Wu looked to the ones in red and black.

"No… there's nowhere with any cover…" Cole shook his head.

Jay then let a grin creep onto his face. "There is on the other side of the town!"

"What do you mean?" Zane asked.

"I mean, I live on the farmland end of the valley! There are lots of barns and the forests, caves; we have it all over there!"

"Okay well how are we gonna _get _over there?" Kai rolled his eyes.

"Wait Jay?" Nya looked over and found it to be him.

"You left this locket at the bakery," Jay showed her it. Nya frantically snatched it and stuffed it in her satchel.

"Hey! The dragons!" Cole grinned. He let out a whistle and shouted. "ROCKY!" Jay laughed and Cole socked him in the shoulder.

The brown and green dragon sailed overhead and then Kai and Zane remembered their own. They did the same and Shard and Flame followed.

The sounds of dragon roars echoed and that's when Jay saw Wisp appear in a flash of lightning and waved to him. "HEYA BUDDY!" he called to the blue beast.

"Hmm, most impressive…" Wu quietly commented on the boys' bond with the dragon guardians.

"THERE THEY ARE!" They turned. It was Samukai, the skeleton king, and his men. They must have been almost a mile away, but nonetheless their vehicles were fast.

The dragons landed and Zane pulled Wu up on his while Kai grabbed Lloyd quickly, not wanting to waste any time. Cole saddled up on Rocky and Nya gingerly took Jay's hand and he sat her up behind him. Kai suspiciously looked at Jay and his sister.

"What!? She needs a ride too!" Jay shouted.

Nya looked over to her horse. "Steela!" she whistled. The horse snapped its attention to her. "Go to the stable and find Daisie!" The horse seemed to understand and galloped off.

Misako looked out of the cave and stared up at the sky, "So it has begun…" she closed her eyes and looked down. "The road to the Final Battle is being traveled…" she rolled up her scrolls and packed them away. She grabbed her shoulder bag and put her cloak on. "Garmadon, you really are in trouble now…"

**This was another interesting chapter to write for me :) When my mom read this... she was so funny, she couldn't stop until she got to the end. I'm still trying to get my dad to read it so I can get some parental feedback... for once in my life XD**

**I'm also gonna let them read the follow ups to this one and my Frozane fic :) **

**Well, thanks for reading! We're past the halfway point and everything moves a little faster and in my opinion, get's more interesting. I just love writing Garmadon's parts! I have so much fun with his dark character! **

**Thanks again, have a good day... or night :) **

**~Mar**


	12. A Hiding Place

Daisie walked out of the house and watched the skeletons charging in and saw four dragons take off. On top of two she narrowed her eyes to see if she was correct. "KAI! NYA!" she screamed. They couldn't hear her. "Oh no…" she covered her mouth.

She looked over and saw some skeletons were leaving to follow the dragons and others were coming down more into the valley, scaring the villagers. She kept her hand covering her mouth and looked back up at the sky before running inside their home.

"Oh Kai… oh Nya…" she sat on the floor in her room, covering her eyes and started crying. "I broke the promise to your father…" she laid herself down and sat, knees to her chest and cried quietly, hoping the skeletons would think the house was empty.

"Come on! Down here!" Jay yelled over the wind. The four dragons landed in a small clearing in the middle of the tall trees, much like the woods on the other side.

Jay grabbed Nya around her slender waist to lift her a little, helping her off, the same with Kai and Lloyd. "Come on…" Wu started off again. Lloyd looked over and ran to keep up with the others who were walking much faster than him.

"Where are we going?" Cole asked, looking around.

"Anywhere but here…" Wu answered.

"Take care you four, we'll whistle when we need you," Jay waved to the four dragons who looked over in their direction.

Everyone was quiet, looking down as they followed Wu, Zane, and Lloyd. They stayed on the grass, quieting their footsteps. It started drizzling over the depressingly gloomy sky. It smelt like wet earth and plants, a smell most of them liked… but not now.

Cole was thinking about his family. None of them were strong and adept like him in a situation; his poor dad who had injured his foot the day prior, Colette and Cameron and Camilla… he worried especially for the younger two. Colette he never cared so much about because of her bratty attitude.

But Cam and Cammi were young, sweet, and probably scared right now. Cole kicked himself for not wanting to run off and protect his own family. What possessed him to follow this band of loons?

Kai and Nya were shoulder to shoulder, holding hands. Nya was shivering as she became more and more wet. Kai then put his arm around her, rubbing her thinly clothed shoulders which were soaked. Kai looked around, everyone was starting to become colder and colder. Their skin was paling and their noses, cheeks and hands red from the freezing breeze. Well… all except for Zane it seemed.

Nya thought about Daisie, how they just left her to be hurt. That poor woman took them in and decided for herself that she would care for them. Now how did they thank her? By leaving her all alone and scared. No doubt she saw them fly away on the dragons. She must have been devastated.

Jay thought about his parents, they were brave and had their mechanical creations but would it really help them? They'd probably be okay but it still made Jay guilty for just up and leaving, not coming home… then the idea hit him.

"Why don't we hide in my parent's barn?" Jay stopped, speaking up.

"What?" Wu turned around.

"My mom and dad… they wouldn't care… they'd be happy to help us. They don't care about threats and consequences".

Wu was quiet, thinking it over for a minute. If he kept the young men and woman going they would get sick. "Fine then Jay, take us there". He nodded.

Jay started running, eager to get to a warm place. The others tried to run too, but cold was stiffening their joints. They cut through the cherry and nut trees that surrounded the farm lands, the wet leaves and branches, wiping and whipping against their soaked clothes and faces as they passed through.

When they got out they were behind a large, old house with an even bigger barn. Jay grinned and ran around the side. Nya looked up, remembering the old house from the day before.

Jay opened the door and hurried everyone inside. "Mom! Dad! I'm home!" he looked at his new friends. "And uh… you might wanna put a pot of tea or something on… I brought uh… company".

"Jay?" a woman with brown hair like Jay's tied tightly back in a bun. She had a long, bright blue apron on over a brown skirt and lighter purple top.

"Hi mom," Jay hugged her tightly as she kissed his cheek. Kai and Cole started snickering when Jay turned around. "Oh don't make me go to the whole 'you don't have a mom and your jealous' thing" Jay smirked.

"Who are your friends?" she looked around.

"Well… okay… have a minute?" Jay looked at her. She sat down which was her answer. Jay took in a breath. "Okay so like, a long time ago we all got the magic gold weapons and dragon friends and we just found out about the others too, and so then I met Nya there in town and then she dropped her necklace so I went over to Kai's house because that's where Nya lives since she's his twin, and then I met Zane who's an assassin and protects Lloyd, who's the prince and then there's Cole who was a miner but the mines blew up so now he's a jobless miner and Kai is a lousy blacksmith so when Nya took Lloyd into town, King Wu was on his way and I got there and he told us about Prince Garmadon who was still alive and evil and we have no idea where his wife went and so skeletons came and Nya and Lloyd rode out of town and we all called our dragons and flew into the forest and then I suggested we come here and well… we're here!"

The others blinked, not understanding all of that since he said it so fast and were pretty sure that his mother wouldn't understand either. However, she stood up and looked at them.

"Well then you must have had quite a day!" Everyone stared. She did understand that garbled mess that was spilling out of Jay's mouth after all. "I'm Edna… and… my husband…" she looked around. "Oh where is that man!?" She marched over to a rickety wooden stair case that led to an old basement. "ED!" she loudly said.

"WHAT IS IT?!" a voice, assumed to be Ed's, responded.

"WE HAVE COMPANY!" she shouted. Each time they shouted the group would flinch, well, all except Jay, he was quite use to it and just stood there with a smile on his face.

Everyone took a seat on the old floor cushions while Edna made a pot of tea. The Walker house was very unique, Nya noticed. They had painted the inside of the walls a light blue color. There were scroll ink paintings hanging of Jay's invention ideas that were pretty good and portraits of them and family members. There were also rickety bookshelves with some of Jay's first creations on shelves.

It made Nya smile to see that Jay had a happy life with a family who was all together, that Ed and Edna took pride in Jay's abilities and imagination.

"So Jay, I heard you saw the Red Mask the other night," Edna smiled and sat next to him. "If you see her again, you must thank her for the money".

"I will mom…" Jay sipped his tea and then thought about the pendant he found that Nya snatched away with a startled look on her face.

The black haired girl was sitting on her knees, drinking her tea, trying to warm herself up. She was still in her white top, but she was dressed different still. She had a tightly tied red vest and he saw black tights under her red skirt with a white flower pattern on it. Her red cape still tied around her shoulders.

Then he tilted his head. Red Mask had black bobbed hair come to think of it. Nya looked up, opening her eyes and smiled at Jay. Her eyes… her dark, milky brown eyes that Jay saw. His stomach dropped when he came to that idea.

And the gold pendant… 'R M' with a mask engraving. R-M… 'Red Mask' Jay jumped, spilling some tea on himself. "Ouch!" he jumped, it was still very hot.

"You okay?" Zane asked the one in blue.

Jay coughed and nodded. He stood up. "I'll... I'll… uh, be right back," he went down the hall to change is tunic. "Nya Blackman… the blacksmith… she's the Red Mask?" he still didn't believe the notion that was running through his head.

"Now we just need to lay low for a while…" Wu looked around at the others, back in the living room.

"What are we going to do though?" Kai asked.

"You four are going to use Spinjitsu… we are going to the Underworld and we're going to stop my brother… he wants those weapons you four possess… the ones I hid with my old friend… Dar Blackman".

Nya and Kai's heart stopped and their tea cups slipped to the floor. "Th-th… that's"

"Your father… yes…" Wu quietly said. "He was a dear friend along with your mother… Zurra Atin".

"Shame she died really," Jay's father walked in. "Ah, remember the good old days dear?" he looked down at his wife sitting. Edna nodded.

Jay came walking out in a newer tunic. "Hold on… you guys… knew each other?" Jay sat back down.

"Yes, in fact… there was another girl… oh what was her name?" Ed frowned.

"Rosie dear". Edna reminded him.

It was Cole's time to be shocked. "She was my mother," his dark gray eyes held back tears at the mention of his mother's beautiful name. Lady Rosie Malone, daughter of a count, but that was a lifetime ago and she was long since past.

He could still remember her dark skin, long, silky black hair, and warm, brown eyes. He must have been ten at least when she screamed at him to run away and not worry about her. He missed her warm hugs and constant kisses and always seemed to care especially about him.

"Uncle…" Lloyd spoke up, wiping his eye. "I'm sleepy…" he yawned, slouching against him.

"Come on kiddo… we can bunk in my room…" Jay led Lloyd through the hall. "Mom, we have extra blankets and sheets?"

"In the basement I think," she answered. "Ed? Go get em for him?"

**I'm excited for the next chapter... guess who you meet in that one?! Hahahaha... **

**I never realized how much I loved writing for Jay and his family :) They're a tight bunch when you look at them :3 **

**All I will say is the next chapter is called "Legend of the Red Mask" and you can think whatever you want ;D**

**Thanks for reading ^u^ **

**~Mar**


	13. Legend of the Red Mask

**JUST TO LET EVERYONE KNOW I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HAPPENED! I saved the document and everything on here and for some reason it didn't show up... or it showed up strange more or less...**

**Thank you Guest: Speedy for asking if I was trolling because I had no idea! That made me look at the document and realize something weird happened! **

**That happened once in Shadow of Death when for some reason the chapter was doubled in the text... so yea... as an apology for that mistake, I'll give a second chapter updated with this one today!  
**

* * *

Hours later, Nya sat up and looked around. The boys were asleep. She yawned and stood up. It was still raining outside and she noticed it must have been nightfall. The wooden floorboards creaked and she looked around, hoping it wouldn't disturb anybody.

She lifted one of the thick, green curtains to the glassless windows and felt the damp breeze hit her. She smiled to herself and decided to go for a walk in the forest. No one should find her there. Right?

She smelled the fresh air and didn't mind her raven black hair getting wet. She stuck her face up, allowing the rain to fall on it. It felt refreshing on her clear skin and she breathed. "Ahhh". She let out.

She took out her pendant from inside her lace shirt with a smile. She stared down at the circular pendant on her chest and was reminiscing in the wonderful history behind it.

That's when she heard a sickly neighing of horses and jerked up. She tried running in, but her red cape got caught on the raggedy ends of thorn briers. She was going to unclasp her cape but turned around and Samukai's face was right there. He reached one of his four bony claws out to her and she screamed.

Kai bolted upright, as did everyone else and they scrambled up and out into the loud thunderstorm outside. "NYAAAA!" he screamed back as he ran outside in the rain. He heard the sound of skeletons and grabbed his gold sword.

"Kai wait…" Wu stopped him.

"THEY MUST HAVE TAKEN HER!" Kai was pulling on his hair with frustration and anxiety.

"We will find her… have no fear… she will not be harmed…" he tried to calm the young man in red down who was sitting on his knees in the mud.

Nya was led through the blackened halls of the fortress. The stones that lined the ground were cobbled and weathered greatly by the looks of it. Nya had a sash around her mouth so she couldn't talk. Her terrified brown eyes looked around frantically, not knowing what to expect.

She scrunched her nose from the musty smell of shadows and sickness. Surely this was no place for the land of the living.

Samukai then shoved her forward so she stood in the middle of the room. The walls and corners had long, eerie shadows cast around it so it was pitch black except for the small area she stood in. A faint white gray light glowed from some place she didn't know.

"What is it!?" she heard an older voice snap. He sounded angry, as if they were disturbing him, which most likely was the case. She started shaking, but didn't know it until she looked at her wet legs.

"Prisoner… she was with your brother my lord," Samukai said. "I saw her in the village… with your son".

"Oh…" he paused. Nya still couldn't see him. "Well now that is interesting… leave her here… and … untie that sash. I'd love to speak to her…" a dark chuckle followed making her swallow. A knot in her stomach was forming on the command of a voice whose owner she could not see.

The skeletons did as instructed and Nya pressed her lips together when it was done. Her wrists were still tied with the rope and she looked around. "H-h-hell-llo?" she looked around. "Who's there?"

"No need to be scared little girl…" he laughed.

"Who are you?" her voice cracked. She coughed. "Show yourself". She tried to sound dignified, just like any story when a damsel would yell for her captor to 'show himself'.

"Well if I must…" he amusedly said. "But I must warn you, I'm the stuff of nightmares," he laughed again. Nya didn't know what to expect after that line.

He seemed to melt out of the many shadows in the room. Tall, with black skin, pulsating, intense red pools for eyes, and white markings that glowed bright in the darkness they were in. Nya looked up at him, eyes wide and mouth glued shut when he gave an evil grin, showing his sharp, white teeth.

"I did try to warn you, I am quite the sight aren't I. Hmm?" he laughed. "I; am Lord Garmadon," he moved closer to her. "And who might you be Miss?"

Nya's shoulder slunk forward and she brought her head lower, swallowing hard. "N-Nya Blackman…" she squeaked. "A… a blacksmith…" she kept her head low. She couldn't bear looking at the man before her.

"I knew a man by that name… Blackman…" he toyed with Nya's short hair making her uncomfortable on purpose. "My men say they saw you with my son in your market place… is that true?" She looked to her left, away from him. "Where are they hiding? Somewhere nearby I am most certain of… right?"

Nya looked up with fire in her brown eyes that Garmadon recognized. "I'll never tell you!" Nya growled with confidence.

"So the little snake bites?" Garmadon chuckled. "But honestly… I will find them… and if the directions do not come from you… the ones you love will die when I find them… so think about that young one," he patted her on top of her head and walked out of the room.

Nya swallowed again and started shaking. He would surely kill all but Lloyd. She fell to her knees and started crying quietly.

"She is probably in the Underworld…" Wu stroked his long white beard. "No doubt my brother will use her to find his son…"

"Well let's go…" Cole agreed.

"Let us find the dragons," Zane nodded and started running.

"Mrs. Walker, would you mind Lloyd for us?" Wu asked Edna politely before joining the younger men who ran ahead of him.

"Of course sir," she smiled. Lloyd was asleep again inside, at peace and unaware of the quest his friends were going on now.

The five ran into the woods and went to saddle up on their dragons, grab Wu, and they would be off to save Nya Blackman.

Nya was chained to the arm of Garmadon's throne by her wrists. She felt pathetic, like a little slave girl and he made sure she felt helpless.

"You know Miss Nya, that is a strange pendant you wear…" he picked up the gold circle that was on her chest. "R-M hmm? With a mask engraved?" Nya refused to speak. "Why I know of a legend about a girl who stopped corruption in her town… my mother use to tell me the story… they called her the Red Mask… is that what you are? The persona of her?"

"Shut up…" Nya clenched her teeth. She kept her eyes forward, staring at the heavy, black doors to the throne room.

"Oh I struck a nerve… what? Your mother read you the story too then? Hmm? Was this her necklace you keep hold of? Was she the Red Mask as well?"

"I said shut up!" She found moxie to scream that at him, straightening up and glaring at him. Her voice echoed through the damp, dead chambers. She closed her eyes. "You don't know my mother!" She turned back and slumped.

"But I did know your mother… and that description would suit her perfectly… your grandmother too… I know you were not the first little red devil to cause havoc in your town".

Nya was silent. The Red Mask was a generation of women of the female side. Her mother, grandmother, and her great-grandmother who started it all; stole and tricked the ones who cheated and then gave the riches to the ones who deserved it.

"Zurra was always a woman with fire… You are very much like her…"

"You don't know anything about my family!" Nya hissed yet again. "You don't know anything about _me_". She narrowed her eyes and glared up at him for a second time. "I don't care what you say! I don't care if you were the rightful heir to your throne or not, you are going down so hard and my brother and friends are coming to destroy you and get me out of here and we'll have peace!" she turned around and lowered her head.

"Well well, have it your way… but I have great plans for you little one… when I escape my prison… when your brother and friends come down here, they will give me the four weapons I need to help me escape this horrible, wretched realm… and it's all thanks to the little thief who wandered from her refuge," Nya's mouth went dry. "Remember, it is all your fault".

He got up and walked out, leaving Nya's eyes to run streams of silent tears. "I'm sorry Kai… it _is_ my fault…" she whispered to herself.

**Sorry again guys, I'll put up another one tonight :/**

**~Mar**


	14. The Four Destined

"Okay so what do we do to get to the Underworld?" Kai saddled up on Flame.

Wu sat himself on Shard, behind Zane and looked over to the young man in red, "We will use the dragons to fly through the portal, only they can travel the speed we need to go down there".

"Then let's ride," Cole pulled on Rocky's reins and the brown and green beast started flapping his monstrous wings, slowly lifting him and Cole off the ground. Zane, Jay, and Kai followed and they were off, Zane and Shard leading the way.

The sailed over the high tree tops and headed for the tallest mountain in the region; the one that belonged to the Fire Temple. Kai smirked, he certainly loved going up there with Flame.

"Here we go!" Zane shouted.

Kai's attention was turned back to the mission. He kept his eyes forward but frowned when they seemed to be heading straight for the mountain side. Jay and Cole looked back at Kai, surprised and worried.

"Uh… we're gonna hit that mountain!" Jay shouted nervously.

"Exactly!" Wu yelled at them. "What did you expect?"

The other three behind Shard started nervously clinging to their saddles; legs bent back and feet up on the edge of their saddles. They shut their eyes when they came to the mountain. Yet, they never hit anything. The other three opened their eyes and looked around.

It was a tunnel of rock, lined with colored gems and stones that glowed bright as they flew by. It was a whirlwind of color that made the young men stare at it in awe. They snapped out of their dazed looks when the tunnel split and Cole and Kai went one way and Jay and Zane took the other.

The gems shifted colors in the different tunnels, blues and greens and orange, yellows, and pinks. The fork in the road ended shortly and it was one tunnel again. The lights from the stones started turning darker and darker into purples and grays, then, there was darkness.

It was a cave that was obviously unimportant because there were no guards there. They slid off their dragons and had a look around. Black stones and almost no light which made it rather hard to see or walk straight. Not to mention they were on more of a plateau with a pitch black abyss surrounding the edges between the plateau and the cave walls.

"Okay then… what now?" Kai whispered, looking around at the cave ceiling which was not visible because of the shadows.

"You have the golden elemental weapons… it's time to end this…" Wu quietly said. "We must not be seen…" he started walking.

"Time out… elemental weapons?" Jay stopped him. "What do you mean?"

"You found those weapons in places that coincided with the element… didn't you?" He turned around. "Kai; at the Fire Temple, Jay; the old tree that lightning had struck, Cole; a cave in a mountain base, and Zane; in an ice cave when you saved Lloyd".

"And our dragons breathe those elements… right?" Cole asked, putting a hand on Rocky's nose.

"… the weapons found you… you might think it was the other way around but Dar Blackman and I hid the weapons with the dragons to give them to whoever was worthy… that was you four…"

"Why didn't my father tell me this?" Kai blinked.

"Because it was suppose to be a secret… even I didn't know… but who knew his own son would be a ninja…"

"Ninja!?" The four men said together.

"Yes… each of you… my father passed the four elements into you four before he died… and I didn't even know it… Kai; fire, Cole; earth, Jay; lightning, and Zane; ice". The four looked at each other and the weapons in their hands. "And when the time is right, you will unlock the Spinjitsu elements inside you".

"Spinjitsu? Really?" Zane blinked, surprised. Wu nodded.

"Oh man…" Jay grinned. "AWESOME!" His voice echoed and they heard the sound of small rocks falling to the stone floors. Jay clapped his hand over his mouth. "Sorry…" he whispered. "We get ninja outfits right?"

"Yes Jay…" Wu sighed. "Come on…" he started walking again. The other four followed in step.

The new team walked quietly through a long almost pitch black hall of rock out of the small cavern into a larger one, looking basically the same. The five hid behind sharp rocks and stalactites near the tunnel opening. They poked their heads out and saw skeletons at work, carting weapons into the fortress.

"That is where my brother is…" Wu sighed.

The fortress built into the next cavern over was tall, the gates carved into the wall with purple and black stone. The outside bridge led over another black abyss and had arches made from what looked like a giant creature's rib cage and the front gate had a large white stone skull built into it. The gate stood tall and skeleton archers hid in every possible window of the gate.

If there was one thing the four boys could agree on was that Lord Garmadon cared greatly about presentation that looked menacing and was heavily fortified.

Wu looked the gates over as well, "You will need to use Spinjitsu and be able to create the Tornado of Creation… the ultimate move… that is what will stop the skeleton advances when you get inside".

"But your highness… isn't that dangerous if done incorrectly?" Zane whispered back. "You said it could be horrible consequences… we never even used regular Spinjitsu before this…"

"Yea, we're not ready," Jay squeaked looking at the scary skeleton guards checking the carts as they went in. "What if we're caught?"

"Oh you'll be just fine boys…" Wu stood up. "Good luck…" he started walking out.

"What!? Where are you going!?" Jay was pulling on his short hair. "What is he doing!?" he looked at the others who shrugged.

"Well looky here boys," one laughed and pointed to Wu who was walking to the bridge. "Hey Nuckal, go tell Lord Garmadon we found his baby brother". He folded his bony arms and laughed.

"Haha!" Nuckal laughed. "On it Kruncha!" The skeleton with the eye patch ran through the open gates quickly.

"He's the king? He's an idiot!" Cole hissed.

"_He_ has a plan…" Zane hushed him. "And I know what he wants is to be the distraction for his brother so we may throw Garmadon off guard…"

**OK NOW WE'RE RIGHT ON TRACK AGAIN! **

**Still don't know what happened... but I'm double checking EVERYTHING before I put in the updates... mkay?**

**Gotta say, I got even more excited when I started writing Garmadon's scenes hehehehe**

**So thanks for putting up with me and my strange computer! :D**

**~Mar**


	15. A Family Divided

"Well, look at you brother… you've aged poorly…" Garmadon laughed as he leaned to the side on his throne. Nya side glanced, narrowing her eyes at his insult to the other king.

"And you've become far worse than ever before…" Wu briefly commented. He had forgotten that banishment gave his older brother blackened skin and permanent, angry, red eyes.

"Oh my, not much to say huh?" Garmadon stood up, holding his lightning staff in his left hand. "Then again you were never good with comebacks," he laughed, "Looks like today is my lucky day; I can finish you off like I should have on that day so long ago…"

"Misako said that you would have been sorry had I pulled you back from over the pit…" Wu looked at him. "Was she wrong?"

"And when did you ever speak to her?" he spat, ignoring the question because of his wife's name.

Wu shifted his stance, looking up at the much taller man standing in front of his own black stone throne before him, "Oh then there are many things you do not know…"

"Tell me… where is she?" Garmadon growled.

Misako looked around and quickly poked her head into the old house with the barn next to it. She carefully looked around and stepped. She was light on her feet as she found her way through the narrow hall.

The Walkers were asleep and she found their son's room. And lying on the floor with warm blankets and throw pillows for him and then some, was little twelve year old Lloyd. She held a hand to her chest and sniffed, with a smile. "Oh look at you… too much like your father…"

She dared to kneel down next to him and brushed his blonde hair to the side. Lloyd groggily wiped his green eyes as one hand gripped one of his soft blue blankets. He stretched and half opened them. It was about dawn now and the sun was barely peaking over the mountains of the valley and the sky was pink and orange with streaks of purple and gold highlighting the rolling gray clouds.

Misako was about to stand up and leave when she heard a little voice, "… momma?" it broke her heart hearing that one little two syllable word. "…is this a dream?" he yawned and touched her hand that was rested on her lap.

Misako looked down and smiled, "Yes… yes… it is… I'm sorry honey…" she answered him. She didn't want him to see her… not yet… might as well take advantage of his grogginess.

"I miss you momma… where did you go?" his eyes were drooping again.

This would probably be her last chance for now a long while she kissed his forehead and gently held him because he leaned forward. "I'm sorry my love but momma can't be home now…"

"And what about daddy?" he yawned again, falling back asleep.

"Daddy… daddy is… is… has left… remember?" she whispered. "Momma told you a little didn't she?"

"When you come back home, can we go see him?" Lloyd's eyes were closed, his cheek leaning on her damp green skirt.

"Of course… of course we can… he would be so happy I'm sure…" Misako brushed his hair aside. "Now… momma has to go… but you'll see her again soon… don't worry," Lloyd then laid himself back down on the floor. "She'll see you soon…"

"I love you momma…" Lloyd quietly said before drifting back asleep.

She didn't even notice she was crying until she touched her face. She quickly looked out the window and stood up. She had to get out of here and quickly, before anyone could notice she had been here.

"Why did it have to be like this? What went so very wrong?" she whispered to herself as she walked back to where she hid her things.

She closed her eyes and sat for a minute under the wet trees as it drizzled. She took her wet spotted glasses off and put her head back against the tree trunk. She brushed her loose silver hair out of her face and shivered from the icy wind, pulling the green scarf she wore tighter around her neck.

"Why did it come to this?" she brought her knees up. "Garmadon… Lloyd… if only you both knew what would take place so soon…" she covered her eyes with her hands and started crying again.

**My favorite chapter is coming up... but I also liked this one... it will kind of have a part to play in part 3.. heehee... **

**Thanks so much for reading! This has to be my favorite project by far! :D **

**~Mar**


	16. The Masters of Spinjitsu

Kai, Zane, Jay, and Cole hurried to the next cart that was going by. They slid underneath and grabbed the vertical crossing boards to hold onto, careful not to mess with the axels that would slow down the cart and surely someone would notice and check.

The cart rocked around on the stone and on the bridge as it rattled across. Jay almost lost his grip a couple of times. Cole tried to grab him, but ended up hitting him in the throat.

"_OW_" Jay choked as quietly as he possibly could.

"_Shh_" Zane said. "We are almost there…"

"Guys come on…" Kai was lying on the ground, waiting for the cart to pass.

"What's with that guy, always in a rush?" Jay choked out his words.

They were about to move behind cover when the cart was finished passing over when someone shouted words that startled even them. "NINJAAAAA!"

"Ninja!? Where?!" Jay choked out again.

"Us you idiot! Remember?!" Cole smacked Jay in the back of the head.

Everyone grabbed the golden weapons on their back or hip. The skeletons in the opening room charged in at them. Kai slung his sword around, smacking the white boney monsters. To his surprise, his sword ignited with flames.

"How did you do that!?" Zane asked, surprised.

"I… I don't know!" Kai grinned. "But I like it!" Kai laughed and started sending the skeletons back more with his new flames.

Cole slammed his scythe into the ground and the floor rocked back and forth. "Haha oh man this is sweet… Jay? Zane? You gonna try this?!" He looked to the other two.

Garmadon, Wu, and Nya rocked back and forth. Lord Garmadon looked up. "What in blazes was that?"

"Sir, NINJA!" Nuckal ran in, tripping on the stone floor. Nya held a hand to her mouth, giggling. Garmadon glared at her and she was silent.

"Is my son with them?"

"No sir…"

"So… you send in yourself and four strangers to defend a boy they hardly know? Hmm? Well then, I guess you made my day harder and I'm not so easily forgiving". Garmadon held his staff at his younger brother. "Say goodbye Wu".

Jay gave a raspy laugh as he snapped the nun chucks and lightning spat out of it. Skeletons were closing in around him and he tried spinning in a circle to use his nun chucks to hit them as they drew around him when something different happened.

Jay opened his blue eyes and round him erupted a blue tornado with white lightning fusing through it. The other three boys looked in surprise at him. The skeletons flew away and landed on the hard ground, in pieces.

Jay stopped and looked around. He grinned and jumped silently, of course, his throat was still hurting him.

Zane looked at Jay and back at the oncoming enemy; he had watched what his friend did and followed the steps. For him; a white frosty tornado was his to control.

Kai followed and his was a red flaming one to match the fire around his sword. Cole's was brown and black, like the earth and rock which was his element.

The skeletons kept coming though and the four were now back to back. "What do we do?" Kai looked back. "The Spinjitsu thing can't hold them back for _that _long".

"I do not know; why do you always look to me?" Zane was watching the enemy coming in closer.

"Because you're the smart one! You had the vision about Garmadon in the first place!" Cole snapped back.

Jay was coughing and trying to get out the idea he so desperately had, but the other three were far too busy arguing to hear him.

"I say it's _his highness'_ fault!" Kai snapped sassily. "Why did he leave you and Lloyd if he knew that the skeletons would have attacked the palace under Garmadon's order!?"

"Respect the king and watch yourself!" Zane said, rather angrily which surprised Kai and Cole. "I do not know but I trust him… he is our sensei and our king so we should all be quiet and think of something!"

Jay started shaking the three frantically. "What is it now Jay!?" Cole growled in annoyance. So far, he was finding the boy nothing but a blabbermouth.

"Or-adtho-o-qwee-asion!" he coughed.

"You feel a weird sensation?" Cole raised an eyebrow.

"NAH!" Jay shook his head quickly.

"You ate an odd crustacean?" Zane blinked, not understanding either.

"UH- UUH!" Jay jumped, getting frustrated.

"Oh wait! Oh wait! I got this!" Kai grinned. "Two natives, on vacation! Right?" he looked at Jay.

The boy in blue held his head and sighed. He took in a breath and at the top of his lungs, screamed what he wanted to say, "TORNADO OF CREATION!"

"Oooooooo," the other three said together in realization.

"But what about not doing right and having disastrous consequences?!" Zane repeated the warning he said to their sensei earlier.

"We're about to have a disastrous consequence!" Kai looked back at the circling enemy. It was now or never as the four boys looked back at each other and nodded.

"Fire!"

"Earth!"

"Lightning!"

"Ice!"

"NINJA-GO!" They shouted together. The four tornados combined into one giant green and white one and all four were in it together. It sucked all the weapons and carts into it as well as the skeletons. When they stopped the remaining skeletons were trapped in cages, free of weapons, and very unhappy.

The four breathed and looked one another with grins. "Look at us!" Jay pointed to everyone's new ninja suits. "Look at me I'm blue!" Jay laughed and then smirked. "Hey uh… Kai… does Nya like blue?" he grinned.

"Hey, back off…" Kai snapped.

Zane got between the two and shook his head. The two remembered why they were here and agreed. "Okay okay…" Jay sighed. "Sorry…"

"Good," Cole nodded and started walking.

"Hey, what was that 'Ninja-Go' thing?" Kai asked, running to catch up and walk alongside the tall, black clothed, ninja.

"I don't know…" Cole frowned. "I guess it just came to me…"

"Well I like it!" Jay hopped.

"Yes it should be our battle cry as a team," Zane nodded in agreement. They were all excitedly talking about their new powers, suits, and being a team when Jay gasped.

"Oh my gosh sensei," Jay remembered and started running through the doors of the fortress with the rest in quick step.

Wu slammed against the wall. The back of his head was pounding and his ears ringing. "Sensei!" Nya called from her position.

"How does it feel Wu? Getting stabbed in the back? Like what you did to me…" Garmadon clenched his sharp teeth together. "When you took what was mine from me?"

"Father said you were sick… you weren't fit to have that crown…" Wu looked up defiantly and wiped his bleeding lip.

"Save the talk," he held the speared end to him and was about ready to plunge it into his brother when a gold shurakin hit the spear out of his hands. "What-?"

"That's Lord Garmadon?!" Kai pointed.

"Doesn't matter because we're here to stop you!" Cole looked at the dark lord.

"Oh so this is your Calvary brother? Four teenagers?" Garmadon laughed. "Oh this is rich…"

"KAI!" Nya yelled.

"Sis!" Kai looked back.

"Oh yes I see the family resemblance," Garmadon nodded. "So much like Dar…"

"Don't you dare speak my father's name!" Kai shouted back, enraged. "Come on guys!" He charged forward with his sword ready.

Garmadon rolled his glowing eyes and nonchalantly moved to the left and grabbed his staff and tripped Kai with it. "Now… let's see why you were picked to carry those weapons because, so far I am not impressed," he chuckled.

Each boy took a swing as the dark lord went by them one by one, "Kai the blacksmith; or better yet his sister is the blacksmith; you are such a failure boy…" Kai fell to the ground. "Cole the coal miner, oh surely that is one to laugh at…"

"Shut it!" Cole brought his scythe's sickle around.

"Put down by his sister and father… having to raise his little brother and sister… lost your mother didn't you boy?" Cole was kicked down.

"SHUT IT!" Cole growled.

"Then you know my own pain," Garmadon grimly said. He stood back up. "Who's next?" he held his arms out accepting the challenge of Jay and Zane.

Jay ran forward to distract. Nya cheered on the blue ninja, "Get em boys!" her loud voice echoed in the chamber.

"Jay Walker the pathetic inventor… things blowing up in face constantly…" Jay looked down upon hearing that one, mostly because it was true. "And Zane the orphan… doesn't even know his own last name…"

Behind the one in blue, Zane took his right shurakin and slung it hard. It acted like a boomerang and whipped around the room. Jay was knocked back too, but Garmadon was too late and the three blades of the icy gold weapons gashed him across the shoulder.

"I think you made him mad," Kai scooted himself back nervously, unable to get up from the rocky floor.

Wu's eyesight was still blurry from when his brother knocked him back. When his sight cleared, we saw the four get thrown back and slammed against the far side wall by Nya.

"KAI!" she called for her twin. She tried to crawl closer, but being chained to the throne made it rather hard since her leash was so short.

"You are responsible for what happened to me!" Garmadon pointed at Wu. "And now you'll be responsible for these four boys' deaths!" he laughed. Wu looked down; he couldn't bear to look at the four young men who so willingly agreed to carry the weapons and accept their powers.

The boys struggled to get up; they surely had plenty of bruises already. Their backs ached and Jay had a black eye. Cole fell on his hands trying to get up. There was a horrible pounding in the back of his head and he fell to his side from dizziness.

"Come on guys…" Zane struggled to get up too. "Must get… the weapons…" he stretched his arm out to the golden weapons that felt like a hundred miles away. The four boys were no longer fit to fight.

"Samukai… the weapons…" Garmadon grinned.

The hulking, hunchbacked skeleton general walked in past the helpless boys who were reaching out, trying to seize their weapons of gold, and picked up the four. He looked at Garmadon's outstretched hand and gave a devious grin. "No". He pulled his arms back.

Garmadon's smile didn't falter and he took his hand back, folding his muscular arms. Samukai started shaking, bones rattling. "What's happening?!" he choked, red, glowing pupils enlarging in surprise, feeling his life giving out.

"Like I didn't count on your betrayal?" Garmadon laughed. "I needed someone to hold all four weapons… and you of all people should know Samukai that no one can handle all their power at once… not even I!" Samukai gave one last look of true terror and Garmadon's smug look was the last thing he saw.

The skeleton bursted into a pile of white and gray ashes, leaving the four gold weapons on the ground, a swirling purple and blue portal opened up where he once stood. Wu's eyes widened, understanding.

Garmadon stood in front of it. The four ninja, who were still unable to get up, watched everything as they forced themselves to remain conscious. Wu leaned on his bamboo staff and stood up, "Father would not want you to do this brother…" he sadly looked up.

Garmadon laughed. "GOOD AND EVIL! There has always been a balance!" he grinned, loudly proclaiming the words. "And where I am going… the balance can be broken…" he started walking through and gave one last look back at the helpless ninja, "You…" he seethed, "You were always his favorite…" he pointed at his brother before walking through and vanished and the portal shut in a flash of white light.

"Is… is he gone?" Kai finally was able to stand up.

"For now… but he will return…" Wu sighed. "Come… we must get out of this cursed place…" he motioned for his new pupils.

Kai crawled to his sister and took his sword, cutting the shackles. She jumped up and hugged him tightly. "Oh Kai…" she smiled.

"I gotcha sis," Kai kissed her forehead. "You're okay now… just like I promised mom and dad".

**Three more chapters XD Man... and dad has still only read 4 chapters of this... **

**Thanks for reading though, very much appreciated :) **

**~Mar**


	17. Readying for a New Life

The ninja landed in the middle of their village, sliding off, it was past day break and everyone was still hiding away for fear of skeletons. "What now?" Cole asked.

The new ninja team looked up. It had stopped raining and a warmer breeze returned to the valley. Droplets of water on plants reflected in the sunbeams that shined through the pale gray clouds. The storm was over.

"I will go to the Walker's house and retrieve Lloyd with Zane and Jay…" Wu looked around. "I welcome you to the palace… you are now Ninjago's protectors…"

"For real?" the boys blinked.

"Yes… but… no family… no one should know that you are the heroes of Ninjago…" he grimly told them.

"What am I gonna tell Daisie?" Kai looked at Nya, starting to feel stressed out at trying to get away from their cousin who protected and loved them as their mother did.

Wu smiled at the red clothed boy, "How about if you became a royal samurai? Will she then accept your leave of the shop?"

Kai blinked, speechless. Was it really happening? The dream he had nights ago was finally becoming real today. But then he remembered, "and Nya?"

"I'd be honored if you'd come and serve as an inventor with Jay…" he slightly bowed to the girl in the red tunic.

The boy and girl looked at the other and hugged each other, excited to get started on working together. Kai looked over at the red brown haired teen hugging his twin sister. He'd allow it… for now.

"And what about me?" Cole asked. "I'm nothing special your highness…" Cole brushed the nose of Rocky as the brown and green dragon poked his nose next to his master. The other three allowed him to pet them as well.

"You seem to do well with these dragons…" Wu gestured to the four beasts. "They will come back with us… and we will need someone to care for the royal dragons, no?"

Cole grinned and hugged his dragon. "So amazing!" he laughed and started scratching his happy dragon whose hind leg was cheerily thumping.

Wu, Zane, and Jay got on Shard and Wisp and took off for the other side of town. Cole ran to go tell his family and Kai and Nya sucked in their breath and walked inside the Four Weapons.

"You're safe!" Daisie squeezed them so hard they felt as if they were going burst. Kai and Nya guiltily looked at the other. They couldn't lie to their cousin.

"Daise…" Kai started. "I'm a ninja now…" he sighed. "I know this will be hard but it has to stay a secret… the king didn't want me telling you but I felt I should," Kai smiled. "Nya and I leave for the palace in a short while…"

"What?" Daisie looked heartbroken.

"We're sorry Daisie… but we just saved Ninjago… we gotta leave… because Lord Garmadon got away… he escaped and we need to be on our A-game to find him again… the shop is all yours… Nya made enough tools and weapons to sell for a while… we'll visit," Kai smiled softly at the woman.

"You better be safe!" She kissed both of them on the cheek. "Go pack your things! Quickly!" She shooed them into their own rooms.

Nya quickly grabbed her favorite dresses, boots, and several pieces of jewelry; she would be, after all, living in the palace! Then she looked at her red cape she threw on her cot and bit her lip. "Nya! I got my stuff! Let's take Flame and meet the others!"

She looked away and then pulled the gold pendant out of her pocket and sighed. "The Red Mask must live on…" she smiled to herself and grabbed the cape. "Ready Kai!" she laughed and ran outside.

Cole dreaded telling his father but it must be done… "Dad, I'm uh… moving into the palace… by order of uh King Wu…" he walked through the door. Colette was sitting around with Cameron and Camilla.

"Doing what?" his father, Louis, asked, looking up from his book.

"Uh…" Cole bit the side of his cheek, trying to quickly think of something. "Gonna… uh… be studying… dancing for uh… performing and stuff…" He mentally kicked himself. Why the heck did he say that!?

"Then go pack your things!"

"Cammi and I will help," Cameron popped up and ran to hug their older brother they loved so much. Cole smiled and hugged them back.

The new black ninja didn't have much to take along with him. Some old clothes, that was about it. He didn't need his mining tools anymore. He turned around and found Colette walking in the door with a small bag.

"Here… you should at least have these… being away from home and all..." she said to him. It was different though when she had said that. Not condescending or self righteous like she always was. No; this was the young woman who used to be his sister, before their mother died.

In the bag was a tied up scroll with minor ware on it, rose colored scented candles that smelt of its color, and a box of cedar wood too. Cedar wood was his and their mother's favorite scent and the siblings would light it whenever they felt lonely. Cole looked at the items in the bag and looked up at his sister. "Thank you sis…"

"You be careful now… ya hear?" she hugged him. "And I know you were lying… I know about Rocky…" she whispered in his ear. "Don't worry though… only Cameron and Camilla will know…"

"Thank you," he kissed her cheek and was out the door, looking at the bag she gave him

**Almost done.. wow... The next chapter is my favorite XP of course you can see that I'm building on the original story more or less ^^;**

**I keep trying to leave Daisie out of it more... or even Cole's sister but I keep finding myself throwing them in every once and a while. I think I'm growing attached to Daisie Blackman O.O **

**Thank you so much for reading It means the world to me that you guys like this story I whipped up CX**

**~Mar**


	18. Dying Flame

Garmadon looked around cautiously and before taking another step heard a 'snap' of a wet branch. He backed up against a tree but then he smiled. "Ah my goodness… how long has it been since I felt your presence?" he grinned, amused. "Misako…"

"What are you doing here?" She had her sword at ready, revealing her hiding place. "How can you be here?" Her small muscles tensed, shaking. She didn't believe the sight before her.

"Aw, why? You didn't really think they could kill me… did you?" He asked with a smirk. He stood upright, seeing her shaking, tensed up body. "What are you doing here?" he simply asked her with a bit of a sigh.

She looked at him hard, but then she lowered the blade and sheathed it, softening her gaze, tears welling up but not flowing. "You left me alone… for so long… and now you think a simple smile will fix all of that damage…" she wiped her eye, shaking her head.

"… but we can be together again," he held a hand out to her. "Where I am going… I will be able to possess all of the golden weapons at once… I will be able to rule Ninjago without anyone getting in my way…"

Her green eyes just stared blankly at him. Her body was stiff as they stood, feet apart. "This isn't about us…" she finally said, knowing his thoughts. "This is about you getting power and I can't watch you do that… you're acting like you're offering me a deal but who really wins in the end?" she asked. "You know about the prophecy Garmadon, don't kid yourself…"

"Why do you always have to spoil anything I do?" he snapped at her.

She looked incredibly insulted and stepped forward, "Excuse me?" she narrowed her eyes. "I spoil your fun?" she started raising her voice. "All you ever thought about was either power or strength and you never cared about this family!-"

"I don't what now?" he stopped her.

"What, the lord of the Underworld is now deaf!?" she sarcastically said before she answered him. "You. Don't. Care. About. This. Family," she repeated with more anger.

"How dare you even think that," he hissed at her. If he was trying to scare her or make her flinch, that was far from working.

"You abandoned me, you abandoned your son," she jabbed a finger at him. "And then you turn around and think everything will be okay when you rule the world. Well sorry to tell you Garmadon, but a lot of people want to rule the world and you're probably the least qualified of them all". She coldly told him.

"Nah; you'd rather run away with Wu… right?" he leaned down angrily; they were face to face in a verbal standoff.

"If I wanted to runaway with your brother I wouldn't have had a baby with you!" she shouted back. "In fact, I would have changed your father's mind yet again on who I was going to be married off to!"

"I am so sick and tired of getting kicked to the side my entire life! My father did it, and now you're doing it!"

"Because everything is about you isn't it!?" she asked. "How about me!? You had a bed to sleep in at least! I've been living in a cave! And worst yet, I had to see my baby tell me how much he missed us together!"

"You… you saw Lloyd?" Garmadon swallowed, retracting. "He said that?"

"Honestly Garmadon you are the thickest person in the world," she shook her head. "Maybe I should just give up on everything I believe in and let that die with me," she turned quickly so he wouldn't see her cry.

"It wouldn't mean a thing if I could never be with you again…" that stopped her. He wanted to stop himself from saying that, but the words just fell out of his mouth.

"You're telling me that out of all of the things to think about with your cursed blood, you think about me"?" she pointed to herself. "Just stop lying".

"Why do you think I'm here?" he gestured to where they were. "I want my life back… I am sick and tired of being nothing but a scary bedtime story you tell bad kids…"

"Why should I help you now?" she defiantly asked. "You had a choice eight years ago to remain the man I loved or to be Lord Garmadon and attempt to kill Wu… and you decided".

"Wu said that you stood up for me after I fell… he said you told him I would never do that again if mercy was given to me".

There was no getting out of this one, "Yes I said that!" she admitted. "But I was an emotional wreck after I watched you two fight!"

"You can't hide it now Misako, you aren't mad at me… are you?" he quietly asked.

"Yes… no…" she sighed. "I don't know!" she shook her head quickly. "But I am warning you now, if you don't stop on this path, you… you won't be happy with what you get at the end…"

He shook his head. Why did she have to be so difficult? He was starting to forget why he loved her in the first place. "Fine whatever…" he backed away. "See you around maybe… hope that you won't get killed when I'm taking over Ninjago".

Her mouth dropped as he said that. "The Garmadon I knew would let nothing bad happen to me… what was it you said to me?" she asked him. He didn't look back. "_I'll always love you Misako, I would never hurt you or let anyone else hurt you… I want you with me forever_," she said in a mocked voice. "Yea well some forever and always that turned out to be!"

He started walking. "Where are you going!?" she demanded.

"To see my son," he quietly said.

"No… no you are not going to see that innocent child!" she yelled at him.

"So what? You're entitled to see our child but I'm not?" She silently started shaking when he looked at her. "Sorry _dearest _but you wouldn't have the kid if it wasn't for me". He reminded her, "I contributed too ya know!"

"Don't get sarcastic with me!" she shouted back.

"No, no, don't you deny me what I've waited eight years for!"

Then it got silent between the opposing sides as they looked at one another again. Carefully thinking what to say next or who would say something next.

"I… I am just so sick of running and hiding… I have to relive that day every time I close my eyes," she started crying. "I missed you so much and I never even got to say goodbye," she covered her face with her freezing hands.

She felt arms wrap around her and looked up. "I'm sorry I never got to say goodbye…" he hugged her tightly, "so I'm saying it now…" he whispered. "goodbye…"

"Just… don't tell Lloyd I really was there…" she closed her eyes. "I have a time table to keep…"

"Okay… I promise…" he nodded. He let go of her and she watched him disappear from her sight. She waited another minute, hearing footsteps fade away before she felt she could move again.

She looked around feeling she had to get out of there so she picked up her things and started walking out to find a different place to hide where she could keep an eye on the ninja team.

**This chapter took about a little over a week to write because I tried writing it about five times before but I never thought it felt right... now it does of course. **

**So to people who I think I am the greatest of writing about these two; it takes effort more than half the time XD**

**Thank you so much for reading!**

**~Mar**


	19. New Life

Lloyd yawned and sat up, looking out the window. The sun was shining through now, unlike yesterday when the sun was blocked and a terrible storm hit. He threw one of the warm, wool knit blankets around his shoulders and leaned against the wooden frame of Jay's unoccupied bed.

He found strength in his legs to stand up and he stretched. He turned around and his heart stopped. "Oh Lloyd…" Lloyd swallowed. "It's me… don't you remember your own father?"

"Dad?" Lloyd's face was pale, almost white now. "I-… how are you here?" the young boy started shaking from the emotions that fell on him.

"I cannot explain but I needed to see you…" the dark lord got down on one knee and hugged the small boy. "I need to leave though… now…"

"Momma… was in my dream last night…" Lloyd whispered. "I want us to be together again…" Lloyd sniffed, hugging his dad tightly.

"I wish that too my son… but I would never do anything to hurt you… you know that?" he smiled. "Now I'll see you soon… okay? We can be together when I'm in charge…"

"Dad?" Lloyd stopped his father before he left. Garmadon turned around. "If you wanted to see me… you could have just asked… I wanted to see you too…" the blonde child innocently said. "You didn't have to send that army just to get me…"

"I didn't think you'd want to be around your monster father…" Garmadon turned his back again. "I… I love you Lloyd…"

"I love you daddy…" Lloyd quietly said back.

"Hey mom!" The two looked up. It was time to leave now. Jay and Zane ran into Jay's room where Lloyd was standing. "Heya little buddy!" Jay laughed. "Goodnight's rest?" he fluffed the prince's hair up so it stuck up. Lloyd laughed, trying to forget what just happened.

"Yea…" Lloyd smiled and hugged Zane. He wouldn't dare say what just happened. Not to them anyways.

"We're here to take you home Lloyd," Zane hugged back the child. "And… the others are coming too…"

Lloyd stepped back and looked in disbelief at his protector and friend. Zane smiled and nodded in confirmation. "It seems to me, that you're quite lonely anyways… even with Zane as a friend," Wu walked into the small bedroom.

Jay started grabbing his things as the other three walked out of his room. He grabbed a couple shirts, pants, a cloak, a vest, and he looked back at his bed and sighed. He stuffed the old stuffed bear in his satchel and looked around. He ran outside after he was finished.

"Be safe mister!" Edna poked at his chest. "And make sure you visit!" she squeezed the life out of him.

"Mother!" Jay choked.

"Edna, you're gonna kill him before he even gets to say goodbye!" Ed tapped her shoulder.

She released him and loudly kissed his cheek. "Be safe now honey…"

"I will mom," Jay smile. "And I swear, I'm going to visit whenever I can… promise," Jay finished his goodbyes and left with Wu, Zane, and Lloyd, heading back to Kai's shop.

Kai, Cole, Jay, and Nya walked through the outer gates. They had never been on the inside so all they could do was stare around and soak in everything that they saw.

The outer courtyard was paved with stone white matching low walls in a winding maze covered in luscious green ivy with tiny white, pink, and lavender flowers just beginning to bud. There were stone pots on the ends of the wall posts with big, pink, red, and white snapdragons and any other kind of flower the four could think of.

There was, in the center of the courtyard, a large, and obviously old, cherry blossom tree that towered over them. Its pink flowers were starting to bloom so no cherries were in sight. Every few yards stood, long, white stone statues of dragons, as well as ninja and samurai-esque ones.

On the other side of the statues was an old weeping willow tree with long green hanging branches with white flowers blooming on it. As they walked past, Nya narrowed her eyes to see a heart was engraved on the tree, the initials were unknown and Wu refused to talk about that.

They walked through the stone castle itself and looked around the large rooms. The walls were lined with stained glass windows that reflected a rainbow of colors on the floor and opposite walls.

Jay gave a low whistle at the complexity of the castle designs with its high ceilings and rounded, light arches that partially resembled gothic architecture, except for the adornments which reminded Kai of the Fire Temple. The three others agreed in silence.

They were led up to a tower with four rooms and a center hub. "Here you go," Wu smiled. "This is where you will be staying"

"Yes, this is my room," Zane gestured to the simply decorated one with a long shoji folding screen and white blankets and sheets with pillows embroidered with red brown lotus flower symbols on it.

Kai and Nya took the room directly to its left, fairly large enough for the twins to share. Nya set her bags down and started hanging her dresses and tunics up on the dowel rod that was stuck between the walls to hang clothes.

She kept the dressing screen in front to hide her clothes. She set her jewelry box down next to her extra pair of shoes and satchel.

She took out a rolled up hanging scroll and hung it up. It was an old ink painting of her as a child with Kai and their parents. She smiled and placed a few red candles around it on the wooden dresser for decoration and lit the candles that smelt like holly berries.

Kai simply threw his little amount of things on the bed he apparently claimed. Nya rolled her eyes at her brother's sloppiness, same as back home. The two looked at each other and held hands. It wasn't their home… but, it seemed like it.

Jay took the next room over. He put his clothes away and took out his tools, placing them across the small wooden table. Then he took out a couple of scroll paintings, as well and hung them around. He quickly ran over to his bed and fell back on it. Finally, rest.

Cole's room was on the opposite side of the hub. He went up a stairwell that led to the top of the palace. He was surprised to find the four dragons nestled up in a large keep on top. He grinned and went back down to finish breaking in his room.

He didn't bring many clothes; in fact, he didn't have many clothes to begin with. Like Nya, he had a scroll, not of his whole family though, but the one member of it that he really loved, his mother. He hung it up and lit candles and kept a box of incense next to it.

The five gathered in the hub. There was a wooden table big enough for them to share and a small kitchen area. "I will do all the cooking if you do not mind," Zane spoke up.

"You? An assassin; _cook_?" Jay laughed in disbelief.

"Well, yes actually. Does that surprise you" Zane tilted his head.

"Never mind…" Jay sighed. He looked at Nya who was walking around and examining the view of the courtyard. He slid up to her as casual as possible.

She looked over at him and started laughing at his goofy smile, "What?" she chuckled looking beside her at his smiling face.

"Soo… Nya… how do you feel about the color blue?" Jay tried to sound cool and slick.

Nya covered her mouth and blushed. "It's my favorite color… why?" she couldn't contain her giggles.

"Because, I _am_ the _blue _ninja," Jay raised his eyebrow with a side grin.

Nya nodded and smiled, "Yes, I can see that Jay," she kept nodding, looking at his blue clothes. "If you are asking me on a 'date' than I think it is awfully adorable," Nya's nut brown eyes looked into his sapphire ones.

Jay found himself with his arms around her and her hands were on his shoulders, both blushing. "I'm only askin' because I know that Red Mask gal is out of my league," he laughed.

Nya's eyes widened. She had forgotten Jay had met the 'Red Mask'. She went along with it though.

Just then they heard quick and light footsteps coming up to their little place. It was Lloyd with a big grin, "You guys like your new home!?" he excitedly said, hopping around.

"Yea, thank you for letting us stay hear little buddy," Kai patted him on the head. "Something else you wanted though?"

"Yea, let's play hide and seek throughout the whole castle!"

"What!?" the five others said together in surprise. Lloyd covered his eyes and started counting. "ONE, TWO, THREE-"

"SHOOT!" Jay shouted.

The five knew that the kid would get whatever he wanted so they simply started running down the steps of the tower just to entertain the child. Might as well have some fun before their ninja training began; right?

"READY OR NOT HERE I COME!" Lloyd's yell rang through the whole castle.

Wu irritatingly looked up from the scrolls he was reading and sighed. "That poor child…" Wu held his head. He placed his hand on the green clothed figure on the scroll and tapped it, thinking. "Now to figure out whom this one shall be…"

He got up and left the scrolls on the table. It was the same one that Misako had with her. Painted on it were four figures in black, white, red, and blue with the green in the center with letters painted in an ancient language.

_One ninja shall rise above the others, and he shall become the Green Ninja. And thus the powers of the four elements will be bestowed upon him, and he shall defeat the Dark Lord, thus saving the land from darkness. _

**DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG THIS CHAPTER TOOOOK?! I think it had more revisions than the last one when I think about it... I kept wanted ing "Oh look! More des. here! And here... and more here!"**

**It turned out good. **

**And this concludes book one of this series! Thank you so so so so so much for reading this! **

**So are you looking forward to part 2? (depending how you answer is how long I will decide to wait to post because I'm swamped XD)**


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